Biomass of whales captured in the Azores is equivalent to four “Queen Elisabeth” ships
In a study just published in the journal Fisheries Research, it is estimated that the total biomass equivalent to the capture of 23,557 sperm whales by the coastal whaling of the Azores, between 1896 and 1987, is 361,039 tons.
This value is equivalent to four times the weight of the “Queen Elisabeth” liner (90,900 tons), according to a note from the Department of Oceanography and Fisheries of the Azores.
In the same document, specialists from this department of the Azorean academy refer that the current paradigm of marine resource management implies a better understanding of the complex ecological processes that influence marine ecosystems. Biomass removed by human activities is one of the main indicators used in various types of models, but unfortunately in most cases there are no accurate records of its value, and it is necessary to develop reliable methods to estimate it. More refer that cetaceans are important predators in the marine ecosystem, probably having a key role in the structuring of trophic chains. Intensive hunting of large whales has removed huge amounts of biomass from the oceans, with effects that are still poorly understood on their ecosystems. Additionally, whaling may have contributed to global warming, by releasing large amounts of carbon into the atmosphere and by decreasing the effectiveness of some processes of carbon fixation in the oceans.
Coastal whaling since 1896 but no reliable records The coastal whaling of the Azores has been developed since the 1850s, but there are only reliable records of catches from 1896 onwards. Through the reconstruction of the captures and the industrial production of oil, two methods were applied to estimate the biomass removed that produced very similar values. The estimate of 361,039 tons was considered the most reliable for the total period of coastal whaling in the Azores. This figure does not, however, include captures made by ships of other nations in the waters of the Azores, which are unknown, the document reads. Furthermore, it is mentioned that one could think that this exercise is useless, since the last whale captured in the Azores was harpooned in 1987. In fact, the quantification of the extractions of organisms from marine ecosystems in the past is essential for the management of marine resources today. The results of this work were, used in another, quantified the total catches in the Azores between 1950 and This study, says the DOP, is the one published in partnership by MAPCET and the Regional C&T System – Azores. The work was carried out by our colleagues Rui Prieto, Pham and Telmo Morato, together with Cristina Brito, from the Centro de História de Além das Universidades Nova de Lisboa dos Açores.