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Climate change threatens blue whales' food supply 19 July 2001 ©2001, Environmental News Network Jerry Kay (news@enn.com). Permission obtained on August 2001. E-mail message. LONDON — Melting polar ice is threatening the main food source for Antarctic blue whales and could lead to their extinction, an international environmental group said Thursday.  The whales feed on small sea creatures known as krill, which in turn eat microscopic marine algae. The algae live in sea ice and are released in the summer when the ice melts.  The environmental group WWF said studies had shown that as the temperature has increased in recent decades because of climate change, sea ice had diminished rapidly and food supplies for blue whales were getting scarce.  "If this decline continues, it will seriously affect the entire ecosystem of the Southern Ocean and could lead to the extinction of the Antarctic blue whale," WWF said in a statement ahead of a meeting in London next week of the International Whaling Commission.  The blue whale population in the Antarctic was drastically reduced by commercial whaling from 250,000 a century ago to probably below 1,000 today, WWF said. The population has shown no signs of recovery since blue whales were protected from whaling more than 35 years ago.  The blue whale, which weighs 160 tons and measures up to 30 yards long, is the largest animal ever to live on Earth.  WWF said that apart from the effects of climate change, krill were also threatened by an increase in commercial fishing.  WWF whale specialist Stuart Chapman said, "It would be a catastrophe for the natural world if the decline of the blue whale was accelerated by new commercial pressures. It would be the final nail in the coffin."

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