The catch techniques of Basque fishermen in the 16th and 17th centuries were tragically effective. "A very vicious type of whaling was enacted on them - what was termed 'bay whaling'. Right whales had very high fidelity to certain areas, to certain bays, and they would return every three years to produce young. The whalers would just sit in the bay and knock them out when they returned. And when no more came back, the whalers simply moved on to the next bay."
The northern species are in deep, deep trouble still. Individuals can be counted in just the hundreds, and ship strikes are killing the animals at an unsustainable rate. Fortunately, the southern right whale (Eubalaena australis) is estimated to be doing much better with its various populations adding up to more than 7,000.
"South Georgia was once the epicentre of commercial whaling," says Dr Jackson. "When you consider the havoc that place created - they killed more than 176,000 whales within a day's sail - it's amazing no-one's gone back since to do a proper assessment of how whales are doing now."
The scientists will be using acoustics to find the animals, and then photographing their lumps and bumps. The pattern of hard skin patches, or callosities, on the head of a right whale is a unique identifier. If possible, the team will also try to tag some animals with satellite trackers, and take skin samples to do DNA analyses. The animals' genetics hold clues about population history and the relationships between different groupings.
But surely the best bit :
One innovation that has seen increasing use in recent years is the "whale breathalyser". This involves flying a drone over the blowhole and catching a sample on a petri dish of whatever is vented by the animal. It is a way of determining a whale's microbiome - the family of bacteria, fungi and viruses held in the respiratory system. You can tell a lot about the health and condition of humans just from their breath. Likewise with whales.
http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-42708207
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