One or many? Exploring the population groups of the largest animal on Earth

New research shows that Antarctic blue whales are likely a single population, rather than several isolated populations — information that will help conservationists as the whales, the world’s largest animal, try to recover from historic lows due to 20th century whaling.

Climate change may be culprit in Antarctic fish disease outbreak

Climate change might be behind an unusual disease outbreak among Antarctic fish. For about a decade, University of Oregon biologists John Postlethwait and Thomas Desvignes have been visiting the West Antarctic Peninsula. They study a unique group of fish that has adapted to the harsh polar environment. But on a 2018 field excursion, they noticed something especially strange: a large number of those fish were afflicted with grotesque skin tumors.