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Dr. Rodrigo Hucke-Gaete
Practitioner Fellow at World Wildlife Fund
Location:
Chiloe and Corcovado, Chile
Project Title: A New Marine Protected Area for Blue Whales in Southern Chile
Publications and Presentations: A New Marine Protected Area
for Blue Whales in Southern Chile">A New Marine Protected Area for Blue Whales in Southern Chile
Project Description
Blue whales were severely depleted by modern whaling to such a degree that they were considered destined to extinction. During 2003, one of the most outstanding blue whale feeding and nursing grounds known to date in the southern hemisphere was discovered in southern Chile by Rodrigo Hucke-Gaete and his Blue Whale Center team.
To guarantee the protection of the largest animal on Earth and its ecosystem, Dr. Hucke-Gaete is using his fellowship to consolidate a scientific program and apply the obtained knowledge for promoting the establishment of a marine protected area in Chile. He also will use the emblematic status of the blue whale to generate a change in attitude among stakeholders toward the marine environment.
"Given that blue whales can be considered a 'flag' or 'poster' species, we can use their status to spearhead successful public marine education programs, harness their popularity for bringing larger areas into some degree of protection, and increase funding for marine protected areas," said Dr. Hucke-Gaete. "Chile has somewhat forgotten it stretches over 4,000 kilometers (2,485 miles) of coastline, and that its waters are inhabited by some of the most spectacular species in the world. Among these, the largest animals ever to have existed are making a comeback after being subjected to strong hunting pressure. It is this next generation's responsibility to try and revert what previous generations almost achieved—the extinction of these remarkable animals."
Dr. Hucke-Gaete has been closely collaborating with government agencies at the regional and national levels to develop a formal proposal for establishing a marine protected area in the region. The work would conserve an area of roughly 46,000 square kilometers (11.4 million acres), making it the largest in Chile.
Biographical Information
Dr. Rodrigo Hucke-Gaete studied marine biology at the Universidad Austral de Chile and started participating at an early age in field studies with marine mammals from Easter Island to Antarctica, as well as along the coast of Chile and Australia.
He developed his undergraduate thesis on Antarctic fur seal population dynamics and his doctoral thesis on blue whale ecology in southern Chile, discovering one of the most exceptional blue whale feeding and nursing areas in the Southern Hemisphere.
He is part of the Cetacean Specialist Group of the Species Survival Commission from the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), a member of the International Whaling Commission Scientific Committee, and an active participant at other international venues. These include the Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), Convention on Migratory Species (CMS), and the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research (SCAR) Seal Specialist Group.
He currently is a lecturer/researcher at the Universidad Austral de Chile and director of the Centro Ballena Azul (Blue Whale Center), a local NGO located in Valdivia, southern Chile.
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