Scot MacKay writes in The Southland Times about efforts by New Zealand researchers to find out how to bring more whales back in New Zealand’s waters.
A team will leaving to go almost 500km south to study southern right whales, which were plentiful in NZ waters before whaling.
An excerpt: (read in full here)
“The Southland coastline was the most common place in New Zealand to see whales, but not enough of them were being seen and scientists wanted to find out why, he said.
“The group was trying to identify what type of environment whales liked to live in so it could compare that to places in New Zealand and see if there were human deterrents that stopped whales from populating our waters.
“”We can learn from what happens elsewhere in the world … and looking at where there are likely to be whales in New Zealand,” he said.
…
“”I think they are starting to make a comeback already and Southland is probably the best place to see them … but they are a bit more sporadic around the rest of New Zealand,” Dr Rayment said.”