mammal | WhaleTales Blog by Chris von Ulmenstein

An Australian Blue Whale Project has used acoustic technology to track the rare Blue whales in the Antarctic’s Southern Ocean, identifying their location based on the noises the whales made, reported The Times.

The Blue whale is the largest whale species, making it the largest mammal in the world, yet is rarely seen in the Antarctic Ocean. The Australian research team located the Blue Whales from their unusual noises, enabling the researchers to locate the Blue whales. Once located, two of the Blue whales were satellite tagged and 23 biopsy samples were taken, to track the Blue whales’ feeding habits in summer, and to study how they forage, a process that took seven weeks.

The Blue whale can grow up to 30 meters and can weigh 180 tons. Its tongue is heavier than an elephant, and its heart is as big as a small car. The noises made by the Blue whale were heard hundreds of kilometers away! More than 600 hours of Blue whale songs were recorded and more than 26000 calls were recorded and analysed for the project.

The Blue Whale Project is proving that whales do not have to be killed to conduct scientific research, unlike the Japanese, who claim to slaughter whales in the interest of scientific research!

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com Twitter: @WhaleCottage

Wine marketers are most impressive, always coming up with a new angle to market their wines. Anthony Hamilton-Russell, Mr Ãœber Cool of Wine Marketers, took his Southern Right Sauvignon Blanc into the Indian ocean to age for two years. The end result is a fine wine in a bottle that is covered with distinctive marine life, representative of the world’s biggest mammal that the brand is honoured to be named after, and that is synonymous with Hermanus, where Hamilton-Russell makes his wines in the Hemel-en-Aarde valley.

After ageing in 9 metres of sea water in the Hermanus New Harbour, 425 bottles of the 2004 Southern Right Sauvignon Blanc, the tenth vintage, is available for sale to wine lovers at the Wine Village shop at the entrance to Hermanus, with barnacles, seaweed and all.

Hamilton-Russell said “I wanted to make the point that good South African Sauvignon Blanc can age really well and at the same time test the theory that ageing wine under the sea slows down the ageing process. There was a certain symbolism in using our 10th anniversary vintage to make this point and we enjoy the fact that the bottles were aged in the same bay that hosts the Southern Right whales the wine is named after.”

“The Southern Right and Wine Village teams have tasted the sea-aged and cellar-aged wines and it left us speechless! The sea-aged wine was fresher, tighter, lighter in colour and less developed, while still showcasing a highly appealing additional complexity from bottle ageing. The land-aged wine has a rounder, fuller structure with more honeyed notes”, said Paul du Toit, owner of Wine Village. “Exactly what makes the sea-aged wine fresher is unclear, but factors such as high pressure and the various vibrations of the under-sea environment are thought to play a role. Both the land and sea-aged wines experienced low to non-existent levels of ultra violet light and constant low temperatures” he continued.

Hamilton-Russell added: “Southern Right Sauvignon Blanc is sold in more than 25 countries and our bottles carry the message of Hermanus and its Southern Right whales around the world. We are proud of our close ties to Hermanus and the small role we play in drawing attention to what is probably the world’s best shoreline whale watching.”

Wine Village, Hemel-en-Aarde Craft Village, Hermanus, Tel (028) 316-3988.

Chris von Ulmenstein, Whale Cottage Portfolio: www.whalecottage.com