LAST YEAR AN UNSUSPECTED population of blue whales (Balaenoptera musculus) was discovered in the Indian Ocean. Now a scientific team led by UNSW Sydney say they have discovered a fifth population of the smallest B musculus subspecies, brevicauda or pygmy blue whales, also in the Indian Ocean but near the Chagos archipelago. The species grows to a maximum 24m in length.
As with the earlier discovery it was the whales’ singing that gave them away, but it was underwater bomb detectors that picked it up.