A hidden population of blue whales has been discovered by researchers using underwater sensors built to detect illegal nuclear weapons testing.
“We’ve found a whole new group of pygmy blue whales right in the middle of the Indian Ocean,” said Professor Tracey Rogers, a marine ecologist at the University of New South Wales Sydney.
It is not yet clear how many of the whales, which can weigh more than 100 tonnes, there are. “We suspect it’s a lot by the enormous number of calls we hear,” Rogers said.
The whales were detected using data gathered by the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organisation (CTBTO), which monitors the testing of nuclear weapons.
The work includes using sophisticated underwater microphones, called hydrophones, to listen for the sound waves created
