The world’s largest mammals, Blue Whales, have returned to Spain’s Atlantic coast after an absence of more than 40 years. The first one was sited off the coast of Galicia in northwest Spain in 2017 by Bruno Díaz, a marine biologist. He heads the Bottlenose Dolphin Research Institute in O Grove in Galicia.
Another one was spotted in 2018, another the following year, and then in 2020, they both returned. Just last month, in August, a different specimen was spotted off the Islas Cíes, near O Grove. Díaz said it was not yet clear whether the climate crisis was leading the mammals to change their habits and return to an area where they were hunted almost to extinction previously.
“I believe the moratorium on whaling has been a key factor,” Díaz said. “In the 1970s, just before the ban was introduced, an entire generation of blue whales disappeared. Now, more than 40 years later, we’re seeing the return of the descendants of the few that survived.”
