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Right Whales Can Live 130 Years or Longer, Research Finds

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26 Dec, 2024

This post was originally published on Eco Watch

Scientists have estimated that bowhead whales — the longest-living whale species — can live more than 200 years.

It was once thought that the bowhead’s cousin, the right whale, had an average lifespan of about 70 to 80 years, but new research has revised that estimate to more than 130 years — nearly twice as long!

“From the standpoint of physiological scaling, these superannuated ages should not be unexpected. Whales are the largest living animals, and body size is highly correlated with longevity,” the authors of the study wrote.

The researchers worked with Indigenous subsistence hunters from Utqiaġvik, Alaska. They used chemical analysis of bowhead whales that had been killed to demonstrate that they are able to live more than two centuries, a press release from University of Alaska Fairbanks said.

The chemical evidence was corroborated by harpoon tips from the 19th century being recovered from bowheads killed during modern hunts.

Right whales are more closely related to bowheads than any other species and appear to have similar lifespans. Like their cousins, right whales filter their food through baleen plates and make seasonal migrations to birthing grounds.

The names given to right whales were sadly from whalers considering them to be the “right” whales for hunting because their thick blubber caused them to float after they had been killed.

“Industrial whaling, which for most species ended only 60 years ago, would have required any individuals now aged over 100 years to have survived at least 40 years of intense whaling, and any individual over 150 would have had to survive 90 years of that same intense hunt,” the authors wrote in the study. “Given that many whale species were reduced to less than 10% of their original population size, and the population minima for most species were reached in the mid-20th century, that degree of whaling would have rendered superannuated individuals extremely rare or completely absent from the age structures of most populations. Consequently, extremely old whales may not be part of the demographic makeup of current whale populations, even if they historically existed.”

The researchers looked at four decades of data that had been collected through photo identification programs tracking critically endangered North Atlantic right whales — who live along North America’s Atlantic coast — and Southern right whales, found south of the equator, the press release said.

The research team constructed survivorship curves — graphs showing how many of a population survives to each age — using the data, which are similar to those insurance companies use in the calculation of human life expectancies.

Their analysis showed that Southern right whales can live longer than 130 years — with some possibly living to 150 years — rather than the 70 to 80 years that had been previously thought.

A Southern right whale in Península Valdés, Argentina. Francois Gohier / VW Pics / Universal Images Group via Getty Images

In contrast, the team found that the average North Atlantic right whale lifespan is only 22 years, with few individuals living past 50.

Associate professor Greg Breed with University of Alaska Fairbanks explained that the stark contrast between the lifespans of bowhead and right whales is mostly due to human impacts.

“North Atlantic whales have unusually short lifespans compared to other whales, but this isn’t because of intrinsic differences in biology, and they should live much longer,” Breed, who is lead author of the study, said in the press release. “They’re frequently tangled in fishing gear or struck by ships, and they suffer from starvation, potentially linked to environmental changes we don’t fully understand.”

A North Atlantic right whale swims off with a small amount of fishing rope after a disentanglement effort. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, taken under NOAA research permit #15488

Breed has been studying marine mammals for years, including seals. Certain seal species have lifespans of up to 50 years. Narwhals can live a century or more.

Breed noted that there have been significant underestimations of whale lifespans in the past due to lack of whale aging data.

“We didn’t know how to age baleen whales until 1955, which was the very end of industrial whaling,” Breed explained. “By the time we figured it out, there weren’t many old whales left to study. So we just assumed they didn’t live that long.”

The new research could provide valuable information for future conservation efforts.

“To attain healthy populations that include old animals, recovery might take hundreds of years,” Breed said. “For animals that live to be 100 or 150 and only give birth to a surviving calf every 10 years or so, slow recovery is to be expected.”

The study highlights the essential nature of cultural knowledge in whale communities.

“There’s a growing recognition that recovery isn’t just about biomass or the number of individuals. It’s about the knowledge these animals pass along to the next generation,” Breed said. “That knowledge isn’t just genetic — it’s cultural and behavioral. Older individuals teach survival skills. Younger animals learn by observing and copying the strategies of the older ones.”

Breed and his colleagues plan to expand their research to additional whale populations and explore the possibility of other whale species currently believed to have lifespans of roughly 80 years living much longer. The researchers hope to discover more about whaling’s impact on the number of long-lived individuals in current populations and predict when they will recover to pre-whaling population numbers.

The study, “Extreme longevity may be the rule not the exception in Balaenid whales,” was published in the journal Science Advances.

The post Right Whales Can Live 130 Years or Longer, Research Finds appeared first on EcoWatch.

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Taking the electronic pulse of the circular economy

Taking the electronic pulse of the circular economy

In June, I had the privilege of attending the 2025 E-Waste World, Battery Recycling, Metal Recycling, and ITAD & Circular Electronics Conference & Expo events in Frankfurt, Germany.

Speaking in the ITAD & Circular Electronics track on a panel with global Circular Economy leaders from Foxway Group, ERI and HP, we explored the evolving role of IT asset disposition (ITAD) and opportunities in the circular electronics economy.

The event’s focus on advancing circular economy goals and reducing environmental impact delivered a series of insights and learnings. From this assembly of international expertise across 75+ countries, here are some points from the presentations that stood out for me:

1. Environmental impact of the digital economy

Digitalisation has a heavy material footprint in the production phase, and lifecycle thinking needs to guide every product decision. Consider that 81% of the energy a laptop uses in its lifetime is consumed during manufacture (1 tonne in manufacture is equal to 10,000 tonnes of CO2) and laptops are typically refreshed or replaced by companies every 3–4 years.

From 2018 to 2023, the average number of devices and connections per capita in the world increased by 50% (2.4 to 3.6). In North America (8.2 to 13.4) and Western Europe (5.6 to 9.4), this almost doubled. In 1960, only 10 periodic table elements were used to make phones. In 1990, 27 elements were used and now over 60 elements are used to build the smartphones that we have become so reliant on.

A key challenge is that low-carbon and digital technologies largely compete for the same minerals. Material resource extraction could increase 60% between 2020 and 2060, while demand for lithium, cobalt and graphite is expected to rise by 500% until 2050.

High growth in ICT demand and Internet requires more attention to the environmental footprint of the digital economy. Energy consumption of data centres is expected to more than double by 2026. The electronics industry accounts for over 4% of global GHG — and digitalisation-related waste is growing, with skewed impacts on developing countries.

E-waste is rising five times faster than recycling — 1 tonne of e-waste has a carbon footprint of 2 tonnes. Today’s solution? ‘Bury it or burn it.’ In terms of spent emissions, waste and the costs associated with end-of-life liabilities, PCBAs (printed circuit board assembly) cost us enormously — they generally achieve 3–5% recyclability (75% of CO2 in PCBAs is from components).

2. Regulating circularity in electronics

There is good momentum across jurisdictions in right-to-repair, design and labelling regulations; recycling targets; and voluntary frameworks on circularity and eco-design.

The EU is at the forefront. EU legislation is lifting the ICT aftermarket, providing new opportunities for IT asset disposition (ITAD) businesses. To get a sense, the global market for electronics recycling is estimated to grow from $37 billion to $108 billion (2022–2030). The value of refurbished electronics is estimated to increase from $85.9 billion to $262.2 billion (2022–2032). Strikingly, 40% of companies do not have a formal ITAD strategy in place.

Significantly, the EU is rethinking its Waste Electrical and Electronic Equipment (WEEE) management targets, aligned with upcoming circularity and WEEE legislation, as part of efforts to foster the circular economy. A more robust and realistic circularity-driven approach to setting collection targets would better reflect various factors including long lifespans of electronic products and market fluctuations.

Australia and New Zealand lag the EU’s comprehensive e-waste mandated frameworks. The lack of a systematic approach results in environmental degradation and missed positioning opportunities for businesses in the circular economy. While Australia’s Senate inquiry into waste reduction and recycling recommended legislating a full circular economy framework — including for imported and local product design, financial incentives and regulatory enforcement, New Zealand remains the only OECD country without a national scheme to manage e-waste.

3. Extending product lifecycles

Along with data security and digital tools, reuse was a key theme in the ITAD & Circular Electronics track of the conference. The sustainable tech company that I lead, Greenbox, recognises that reuse is the simplest circular strategy. Devices that are still functional undergo refurbishment and are reintroduced into the market, reducing new production need and conserving valuable resources.

Conference presenters highlighted how repair over replacement is being legislated as a right in jurisdictions around the world. Resources are saved, costs are lowered, product life is extended, and people and organisations are empowered to support a greener future. It was pointed out that just 43% of countries have recycling policies, 17% of global waste is formally recycled, and less than 1% of global e-waste is formally repaired and reused.

Right to repair is a rising wave in the circular economy, and legislation is one way that civil society is pushing back on programmed obsolescence. Its global momentum continues at different speeds for different product categories — from the recent EU mandates to multiple US state bills (and some laws) through to repair and reuse steps in India, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

The European Commission’s Joint Research Commission has done a scoping study to identify product groups under the Ecodesign framework that would be most relevant for implementing an EU-wide product reparability scoring system.

Attending this event with the entire electronic waste recycling supply chain — from peers and partners to suppliers and customers — underscored the importance of sharing best practices to address the environmental challenges that increased hardware proliferation and complex related issues are having on the world.

Ross Thompson is Group CEO of sustainability, data management and technology asset lifecycle management market leader Greenbox. With facilities in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, Greenbox Group provides customers all over the world a carbon-neutral supply chain for IT equipment to reduce their carbon footprint by actively managing their environmental, social and governance obligations.

Image credit: iStock.com/Mustafa Ovec

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