{"id":889640,"date":"2026-10-21T04:48:21","date_gmt":"2026-10-21T04:48:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/889640\/"},"modified":"2026-10-21T04:48:21","modified_gmt":"2026-10-21T04:48:21","slug":"underwater-recorders-capture-sound-of-mysterious-10m-long-giant-off-australian-coast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/889640\/","title":{"rendered":"Underwater recorders capture sound of mysterious, 10m-long giant off Australian coast"},"content":{"rendered":"

Very little is known about the Omura\u2019s whale \u2013 a type of baleen whale, first recognised as a species in 2003. Such is the mysterious nature of the species that it is listed as Data Deficient on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List, meaning there is not enough information to accurately assess its risk of extinction.<\/p>\n

Now, new research from north-west Australia is providing fresh insights into the habitat of the enigmatic whale.<\/p>\n

Published in the journal\u00a0Marine Mammal Science<\/a>, the findings reveal that Omura\u2019s whales<\/a> are most likely to be found in warm, food-rich waters \u2013 knowledge that can be used to help conserve the species.<\/p>\n

Omura\u2019s whales belong to a group of whales known as rorquals, which includes the mighty blue whale<\/a>. They grow to around 10m in length and their evolutionary lineage dates back 10\u201317 million years. But we don\u2019t know much more about the whales \u2013 that\u2019s why researchers from Curtin University\u2019s Centre for Marine Science and Technology wanted to study them.<\/p>\n

The research was based on 18 years of underwater acoustic recordings (2005\u20132023), collected from Australia\u2019s North-west Marine Region \u2013 a network of marine parks stretching from the Western\u00a0Australia\u2013Northern Territory border to Kalbarri in Western\u00a0Australia. The team analysed acoustic recordings from 35 sites spanning around 1,800km of ocean.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Listen: the Omura\u2019s whale song. Credit: Royal Society Open Science
\n\"Omura'sThe Omura’s whale is a small-to-medium-sized whale \u2013 but as far as animals go, it’s still huge, with adults measuring around 10m in length. Credit: Royal Society Open Science<\/p>\n

\u201cOmura\u2019s whales are notoriously difficult to study because visual sightings are rare, so listening for their calls provides an important way of understanding where they occur,\u201d says lead author and Curtin PhD student Ciara Browne.<\/p>\n

Browne and colleagues detected Omura\u2019s whale calls throughout the year, but their distribution appeared to shift with the seasons, with the whales more likely to be present from September to May when waters were warmer. During these relatively balmy months, \u201cocean conditions create rich feeding opportunities,\u201d explains Browne.<\/p>\n

The team also found the whales were more likely to be present in areas with higher levels of chlorophyll<\/a>. Chlorophyll is an indicator of microscopic marine life and ocean productivity \u2013 and therefore prey availability. When chlorophyll levels were higher, the whales\u2019 presence also increased.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur findings provide an important baseline for understanding how Omura\u2019s whales use Australian waters and how they may respond to environmental change,\u201d says co-author Professor Christine Erbe.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis knowledge can help inform marine planning and improve our understanding of potential impacts from activities such as shipping, offshore industry and other sources of underwater noise.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe research can also help improve our understanding of the impacts of future climate change on whale behaviour.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ResearchersResearchers at sea off the North West Shelf, Australia. Credit: Royal Society Open Science<\/p>\n

More wildlife stories from around the world<\/p>\n

Top image: Omura’s whale. Credit: Royal Society Open Science<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Very little is known about the Omura\u2019s whale \u2013 a type of baleen whale, first recognised as a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":889641,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[51],"tags":[79,201],"class_list":["post-889640","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wildlife","tag-science","tag-wildlife"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889640","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=889640"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/889640\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/889641"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=889640"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=889640"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=889640"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}