SOWER Special Issue | J. Cetacean Res. Manage.

We have launched a new Special Issue to share findings from the IWC’s International Decade of Cetacean Research (IDCR) and Southern Ocean Whale Ecosystem Research (SOWER) cruises which ran from 1978/79 to 2008/09.

For anyone unfamiliar with the IDCR/SOWER programme, the first paper describes the background, aims and objectives of the cruises, before reflecting on the programme’s legacy as one of the largest cetacean research projects ever undertaken, bringing together 86 scientists from 16 member states to complete three circumnavigations of the Southern Ocean over a period of 30 years.

The SOWER Special Issue will be published on a rolling basis throughout 2024, with a wide range of papers to reflect the diversity of data gathered during the cruises, from blue whale acoustic data and biopsy sampling experiments to abundance estimates of various cetacean species.