The leviathan has been heard many times since, but never seen.
Some suspect it might have some deformation that alters its voice.
Others think it might simply exhibit a highly unusual vocalization a tenor among baritones.
Tail of a blue whale.© “Mike” Michael L. Baird
The North Atlantic findings suggest it is accelerating.
But morphology can, at best, only reveal the first-generation offspring of two distinct species.
In any case, some marine biologists find the phenomenon worrisome because flues are largely incapable of reproducing.
Although some females are fertile, males tend to be sterile.
More troubling, sterile animals cannot contribute to the survival of their species.
Simply put, hybridization presents a threat to their long-term viability.
This could have consequences for entire ecosystems.
Hybrids that dont play the role evolution has assigned to them undermine this symbiotic relationship with the sea.
Those individuals and their offspring arent fully filling the ecological niche of either parent species, Calambokidis said.
All of this adds to the uncertainty wrought by the upheavals already underway.
These alterations are pushing some cetacean species into smaller, more isolated breeding pools.
There is reason for concern beyond blue whales.
The 370 or so North Atlantic right whales that still remain mayface similar challenges.
Some level of cetacean interbreeding and hybridization may be inevitable as species adapt to climate change.
Some of it may prove beneficial.
The real concern is whether these changes will outpace whales ability to survive.
Flue whales may be an anomaly, but their existence is a symptom of broader, anthropogenic disruptions.
The effect could be what we call a bottleneck, she added.
A complete loss of genetic diversity.
These changes often unfold too gradually for humans to perceive quickly.
There have only been about 30 whale generations since whaling largely ceased.
This article originally appeared inGristathttps://grist.org/oceans/what-the-worlds-loneliest-whale-may-be-telling-us-about-climate-change/.
Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future.
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