備註請放最後面 違者新聞文章刪除 1.媒體來源: 外媒 ecoportal.net 2.記者署名: Daniel García 3.完整新聞標題: 304 humpback whales feeding at the same time: off South Africa, a “supergroup ” just shattered every record 304頭座頭鯨同時覓食：在南非附近海域，一個「超級鯨群」打破了所有紀錄。 4.完整新聞內文: 304 humpback whales feeding at the same time: off South Africa, a “supergroup ” just shattered every record Daniel García by Daniel García May 4, 2026 in Earth 12. INTERNAL 304 humpback whales in a single group — off South Africa a supergroup just shattered every record The sound hit first — like “bombs going off,” repeated across the water in every direction. Then came the smell: blowhole spray so thick it stank up the ocean air for miles. Wildlife photographers Chris and Monique Fallows were somewhere in the middle of it, laughing, cameras firing in every direction, struggling to keep up. What they had stumbled into off the coast of South Africa was a gathering of 304 individual humpback whales — a confirmed world record for a single group. Scientists call these congregations “supergroups,” and while they’ ve been documented before, nothing on this scale had ever been recorded. Why whales assemble in such numbers remains, for now, an open question. 304頭座頭鯨同時覓食：在南非附近海域，一個「超級鯨群」打破了所有紀錄。 丹尼爾·加西亞 作者： 丹尼爾·加西亞 2026年5月4日 地球 首先襲來的聲響如同“炸彈爆炸”，在水面上四面八方迴盪。緊接著是氣味：噴水孔噴出 的水霧濃烈刺鼻，數英里外的海面都瀰漫著這種氣味。野生動物攝影師克里斯和莫妮克法 洛斯夫婦正身處其中，他們笑著，相機快門聲此起彼伏，努力跟上這股氣勢。 他們在南非海岸附近偶然發現了一群由304頭座頭鯨組成的鯨群—這已被證實是單群鯨 魚數量最多的世界紀錄。科學家稱這種鯨群為“超級鯨群”，雖然先前也有過記錄，但如 此大規模的鯨群卻是前所未有的。鯨魚為何會聚集如此之多，目前仍是一個未解之謎。 What Is a Humpback Supergroup — and Why 304 Whales Is Extraordinary A supergroup isn’t simply a large gathering. By scientific definition, it requires 20 or more humpback whales swimming within five body lengths of each other — close enough to indicate coordinated behavior rather than chance proximity. Researchers first formally documented that threshold off South Africa’s west coast in 2011, when unusually dense congregations began appearing during the austral summer months. 什麼是座頭鯨超級群體？ —以及為什麼304頭鯨魚會非同尋常？ 超級鯨群並非僅指數量眾多的鯨魚聚集。根據科學定義，它需要至少20頭座頭鯨在彼此五 倍體長範圍內遊動—這種距離足以表明它們的行為具有協同性，而非偶然接近。研究人 員於2011年首次在南非西海岸正式記錄到此閾值，當時在南半球夏季，異常密集的鯨群開 始出現。 The number 304 needs context to land with full weight. Previous supergroups had reached into the dozens, occasionally more, but marine biologist Simon Elwen notes that averages have since climbed into the hundreds. Even against that backdrop, 304 confirmed individuals is unprecedented. That count was verified through Happywhale, a citizen science platform that applied AI-powered identification to distinguish individual whales from the 472 photographed by the Fallows. Each whale carries a unique fluke pattern — effectively a fingerprint — and the software matched and tallied them with a precision no field team could replicate in real time. The Benguela Upwelling: An Ocean Engine Feeding the Spectacle The location is central to the story. Off South Africa’s west coast, a powerful oceanographic system called the Benguela current draws cold, nutrient-dense water up from depth toward the surface. During the austral summer, this upwelling triggers concentrated blooms of plankton and krill — a seasonal abundance that baleen whales are built to exploit. Humpbacks feed using keratin plates called baleen, which function as biological sieves. A whale takes in a massive gulp of seawater, then forces it back out through the plates, trapping krill inside. Efficient, yes — but only when prey is dense enough to justify the energy expenditure. The Benguela upwelling reliably creates those conditions. Research published in 2021, which used chlorophyll-A concentrations as a proxy for ocean plankton density, supports the view that these supergroups are, at their core, feeding events. Whales appear to be actively tracking productive new areas, moving toward wherever the ocean is generating food most abundantly. 304這個數字需要結合具體情況才能充分理解。先前的鯨群數量通常為數十頭，偶爾更多 ，但海洋生物學家西蒙·埃爾文指出，如今平均數量已攀升至數百頭。即便如此，304頭 已確認個體的數量仍然是前所未有的。這一數字是透過Happywhale驗證的，這是一個公民 科學平台，它運用人工智慧技術識別鯨魚個體，從而將法洛斯夫婦拍攝的472頭鯨魚照片 中的個體區分開來。每頭鯨魚都有其獨特的尾鰭圖案—相當於一枚指紋—該軟體能夠 以任何實地考察團隊都無法即時達到的精度進行匹配和統計。 本格拉上升流：海洋奇觀的動力來源 故事的核心在於其地理位置。在南非西海岸附近，一股名為本格拉洋流的強大海洋系統將 富含營養物質的冷海水從深處帶到海面。在南半球夏季，這種上升流會引發浮游生物和磷 蝦的大量繁殖—鬚鯨天生就擅長利用這種季節性資源。 座頭鯨利用被稱為鯨鬚的角蛋白板進食，鯨鬚就像生物篩子一樣。鯨魚會猛吸一口海水， 然後將其從鯨鬚板中排出，把磷蝦困在裡面。這種方法效率很高──但前提是獵物的密度 要夠大，才能抵銷能量消耗。本格拉上升流能夠穩定地創造出這樣的條件。 2021年發表的一項研究以葉綠素A濃度作為海洋浮游生物密度的指標，支持了這些超群落 本質上是覓食活動的觀點。鯨魚似乎積極追蹤食物豐富的新區域，向海洋中食物最豐富的 地區遷移。 Competing Theories: Why Supergroups Are Forming Now Researchers broadly agree on what supergroups are. They’re considerably less settled on why they occur, or why they appear to be increasing in scale. Two hypotheses dominate current debate. The first holds that shifts in prey availability have driven a genuinely new feeding strategy — or exposed one that always existed but went unobserved while whale populations were severely reduced. The second, and currently best-supported, explanation is that recovering populations have pushed individuals toward alternative feeding grounds, with South Africa’s productive waters drawing more animals each season. The 2021 chlorophyll-A research offers the most direct support for this view. A third, more observational possibility: supergroups may have always formed at roughly this scale, simply going unseen when humpback numbers were far lower. As populations rebound, so does the probability of encounter. None of these explanations has been eliminated. Scientists are candid that a definitive answer remains out of reach, keeping humpback supergroups an active and genuinely unresolved area of marine research. 相互競爭的理論：為什麼超大群體現在正在形成 研究人員對超群的定義基本上達成共識，但對於超群出現的原因以及其規模為何似乎在不 斷擴大，他們的看法則遠不相同。 目前爭論的焦點主要集中在兩個假設上。第一種假設認為，獵物數量的變化催生了一種全 新的覓食策略—或者說，這種策略原本就存在，只是在鯨魚數量銳減期間未被觀察到。 第二種解釋，也是目前最被認可的解釋，認為鯨魚族群的恢復促使個體遷移到其他覓食地 ，而南非富饒的海域每年都吸引更多的鯨魚。 2021年的葉綠素A研究為此觀點提供了最直 接的證據。第三種可能性，更著重於觀察：超群體可能一直以大致相同的規模形成，只是 在座頭鯨數量遠低於現在時未被發現。隨著族群數量的回升，它們相遇的機率也隨之增加 。 這些解釋都還沒有被排除。科學家坦言，目前仍無法得出確切的答案，座頭鯨超類群仍然 是海洋研究中活躍且尚未解決的領域。 A Conservation Success Story Written in the Water Industrial whaling pushed humpback whales to the edge. Their recovery since international protections took effect is one of the more consequential turnarounds in modern conservation history — the global population has now surpassed 125,000 known individuals, a figure that would have seemed implausible at the industry’s peak. The Fallows’ encounter reflects how far that recovery has come. Many of the whales they photographed had no prior documentation, suggesting the population continues to grow and push into new areas. Simon Elwen frames it plainly: the surprise today is no longer seeing a supergroup. It’s going out and not seeing one. That quiet inversion — from rarity to expectation — may be the clearest measure of how much has changed. It also raises a question worth holding onto: what else might be possible when ocean ecosystems are given the space and time to recover? 一個用水譜寫的保育成功故事 工業捕鯨將座頭鯨推向了滅絕的邊緣。自國際保護措施生效以來，它們的復甦是現代自然 保護史上最具意義的轉捩點之一—全球已知座頭鯨數量現已超過12.5萬頭，這在捕鯨業 鼎盛時期似乎是不可想像的。 法洛斯夫婦的這次偶遇反映了鯨魚族群恢復的巨大進展。他們拍攝到的許多鯨魚之前都沒 有記錄，這表明鯨魚種群仍在持續增長，並向新的區域擴張。 西蒙艾爾文一針見血地指出：如今的驚喜不再是看到超級群落，而是出海卻看不見。這種 悄悄發生的逆轉─從稀有到常態─或許最能清楚展現變化之大。這也引出了一個值得 深思的問題：當海洋生態系獲得足夠的空間和時間恢復時，還會出現什麼可能性？ 5.完整新聞連結 (或短網址)不可用YAHOO、LINE、MSN等轉載媒體: https://www.ecoportal.net/en/humpback-whale-supergroup-south-africa/21119/ 6.備註: 大海正發生人類未曾明瞭的變化 IA! IA! CTHULHU FHTAGN! -- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-QXmqX7k8Q 劉德華 悟 電影【新少林寺】主題曲 https://youtu.be/dLRLWy7bKS4 作曲：趙欽 作詞：劉德華 《金剛總持祈請文》 編曲：Adam Lee．飾墜．陳德建 蔣巴桑波 (第七世噶瑪巴確扎嘉措之根本上師) 著 監製：陳德建．李安修 不要把金王冠織入鳥巢中 招惹微風與獵槍是不明智的 依常斷見所立宗 能壞慧命因緣法 精勤十善一夜盡 縱生天人多闡提 -- ※ 發信站: 批踢踢實業坊(ptt.cc), 來自: 1.34.17.2 (臺灣) ※ 文章網址: https://webptt.cc/bbs/Gossiping/M.1777948577.A.507.html