The Southern Right Whale Program
For over half a century, Ocean Alliance has studied a population of right whales that uses the bays of Península Valdés as a nursery ground. Since 1996, we have worked closely with our sister organization, Instituto de Conservación de Ballenas (ICB), in Argentina. The Program is the longest continuous study of any great whale based on known individuals.
The study began in 1970 when Ocean Alliance founder Dr. Roger Payne discovered that individual right whales could be told apart by the differing patterns of white markings (callosities) on their heads. He realized that by following the lives of individuals, one could learn far more about the whales than was being learned from dead whales by scientists who worked in the whaling industry.
The northern right whale species are the most endangered of the great whales. So tirelessly did whalers hunt them that even after 60 years of protection, they are rarely seen in the North Pacific and North Atlantic oceans, where they were once abundant. This species was called the right whale because, for centuries, it was the “right whale to kill.” It swam slowly, its thick blubber caused it to float when dead, and its baleen was worth a fortune.
We have learned that right whales do not cross the equator. The Southern Hemisphere population is a separate species-the southern right whale. Its world population is larger than the northern populations, but even though the Southern Hemisphere populations number in the thousands, they are far below pre-exploitation levels.
The Southern Right Whale Program is now directed in the U.S. by Dr. Victoria Rowntree and in Argentina by Dr. Mariano Sironi, Scientific Director of ICB.
Today, many of the animals Dr. Payne identified in the 1970’s still return to the Peninsula, but now their new calves are accompanied by the calves of their daughters, granddaughters, and great-granddaughters, adding new generations to the history of the family trees.
The value of such a long-term study increases exponentially as each new year of data gets added to it. Ocean Alliance and ICB now follow the lives of more than 5,000 known individual southern right whales in the southwest Atlantic Ocean.
“The right whale data Ocean Alliance hold would no doubt be the single most valuable source of information on whales and their environment available… There really is nothing else out there quite as good.”
— Steve Reilly, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)
Through annual surveys and focused investigations, Ocean Alliance and ICB have created a detailed picture of right whale biology and an invaluable record of the population’s dynamics, distribution, genetics, body condition, health and habitat preferences. The techniques that Ocean Alliance pioneered are now used to study whale species throughout the world.
The long-term objective of the Southern Right Whale Program is to promote the recovery of right whales worldwide through research, conservation, and education.
Right whales occupy a large portion of the world’s oceans. If we protect right whales, the animals that share their habitat will also be protected.
The population of southern right whales that we study off Argentina is threatened by habitat destruction. We continue to improve our understanding of right whales, and those findings are incorporated into right whale protection plans in Argentina and globally.
