Melting ice threatens blue whales' food supply

Posted by bex — 20 July 2001 at 8:00am - Comments
Whale tail

Whale tail

Melting polar ice is threatening the main food source for Antarctic blue whales and could lead to their extinction, an international environmental group said yesterday. The whales feed on small sea creatures known as krill, which in turn eat microscopic marine algae. These live in sea ice and are released in the summer when the ice melts.

The World Wildlife Fund said studies have shown that as the temperature has increased in recent decades because of climate change, sea ice has diminished rapidly and food supplies for blue whales are getting scarce.World Meteorological Organisation

``If this decline continues it will seriously affect the entire ecosystem of the southern ocean and could lead to the extinction of the Antarctic blue whale,'' the organisation said in a statement ahead of a meeting in London next week of the International Whaling Commission.

The blue whale population in the Antarctic was drastically reduced by commercial whaling from 250,000 a century ago to probably below 1,000 today, the organisation said. The population has shown no signs of recovery since blue whales were protected from whaling more than 35 years ago. The blue whale, which weighs about 150 tonnes and measures up to 30 metres long, is the largest animal ever to live on Earth.

Source: The Ottawa Citizen

 

 

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