Antarctica's Lost Giants

The largest animal on Earth, and one of the least understood

The Antarctic blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus intermedia) is a true ocean-giant: the largest animal on the planet. Twentieth-century whaling drove it to the brink, and despite protection since 1964 it remains classified Critically Endangered by the IUCN. Circumpolar surveys run between 1978 and 2004 recorded just 107 confirmed sightings across the entire Southern Ocean. No large-scale survey has been repeated since — so new data are needed to confirm whether the population is recovering, holding steady, or still declining.

Four questions we're finally able to ask at scale

By pooling photo-identifications, acoustic detections and tagging data from research vessels, platforms of opportunity and tourist expeditions right across the Southern Ocean, this project can attempt something no single institution could manage alone.

How you find a whale that was hunted to near-silence

Antarctic blue whales are remote, wide-ranging, and rarely encountered. The project combines methods that work at very different scales — from a single skin sample to years of acoustic recordings — to build a picture no one technique could give alone.

Recent hotspots, and feeding grounds still waiting for a return

Recent surveys suggest blue whales mostly aggregate around a handful of productive "hotspots." Other historic, heavily hunted feeding grounds, have shown little sign of recovery — a contrast this project aims to explain.

From launch to a new circumpolar estimate

A genuinely global collaboration

More than thirty researchers across twelve countries are contributing to Lost Giants, with strong links into the IWC, CCAMLR and SCAR scientific committees.

Institutional partners

Where things stand in 2026