Of all the animals I’ve tried to document in my time, blue whales have been the most difficult, most threatened, most iconic, and probably the most important.
Though the largest animals ever to have lived, here’s the total of what we know about them in the north Atlantic:
- They migrate in spring from somewhere north of the tropics up to Arctic and sub-Arctic waters to feed on krill, i.e. anywhere from Greenland to northern Norway.
- They return southwards in Autumn.
- There were once likely 300,000 blue whales globally, now there are estimated to be circa 17,500 with just circa 1,500 in the north Atlantic.
And that’s all we know.
Some scientists have work tirelessly to try and research these animals, we’re desperately trying to join some dots in their migration route to help conserve them.
Between months of hard work and an amount of cameraman’s luck, I encountered several blue whales in The Azores earlier this year on their migration north…
More to follow in our RTÉ, DEEP OCEAN series later in 2017.
