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Right whales have a longer lifespan than scientists thought

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Sunday, January 5, 2025

This is a Southern right whale in waters off South Australia in 2006. Scientists recently found that Southern right whales have a median lifespan of around 74 years. But they can live up to 130 years of age, twice as long as scientists thought. Image via robdownunder/ Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0). Southern right whales live long lives. These sea mammals, which live in the Southern Ocean, have a median lifespan of about 74 years. But some individuals reach 130 years, much longer than previously estimated. North Atlantic right whales face human-induced threats. They have a much shorter median lifespan of 22 years, primarily due to ship strikes, fishing gear entanglement and environmental changes. Whale lifespan data is helpful for conservation efforts. Understanding whale longevity and population dynamics helps shape policies to promote recovery and protect their cultural knowledge passed through older individuals. Right whales can live as long as 130 years Right whales are a docile, migratory whale species that use filters in their mouths to catch small crustaceans in the ocean. The right whales that live in the North Atlantic only have a median lifespan of 22 years, due to human activities in their waters. Meanwhile, right whales in the Southern Ocean have a lifespan of around 74 years. But the University of Alaska Fairbanks said on December 20, 2024, that Southern right whales can live up to 130 years of age, twice as long as they thought. Right whales are a type of baleen whale. The filter in their mouths is called a baleen plate. The scientists published their study in the peer-reviewed journal Science Advances on December 20, 2024. The 2025 EarthSky Lunar Calendar is now available! A unique and beautiful poster-sized calendar. Get yours today! Photographs identify and track right whales For the past 40 years, researchers have been studying and photographing individual right whales. South African scientists have been monitoring Southern right whales (Eubalaena australis). Meanwhile, North American scientists have been collecting data on the critically endangered North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis). Both species are closely related and have similar life histories. Each whale has a unique pattern of thickened skin on the head, called callosities. So you can identify individuals by their unique callosity head pattern. Researchers have been identifying individual right whales in the photographs and tracking them from one year to the next. Just as important, they have taken note of which whales stopped appearing in photos over subsequent years, presumably due to death. The head of a North Atlantic right whale, showing thickened skin on the head, or callosities. These markings are like a unique fingerprint to each whale. Image via Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, NOAA Research Permit # 775-1875/ Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0) Survivorship curves In this new study, scientists conducted a mathematical analysis of right whale sighting records based on those 40 years of photographs, concentrating on female whales. (They first identified them as females by the presence of a calf.) The researchers used this data to construct survivorship curves. This is a graph that displays projected life expectancies, showing the proportion of a population that survives to each age. (Insurance companies use a similar technique to calculate human life expectancies.) This graph shows survivorship curves for female right whales. The curves are based on 40 years of photographic identifications. Here, scientists were able to mathematically project a very long lifespan for Southern right whales. In contrast, the blue curve for North Atlantic right whales shows significantly shorter lifespans due to human-caused activities such as net entanglements and ship collisions. The light dotted line shows how humans compare on the survivorship curves (using data from the Social Security Administration). Figure via Greg Breed/ The Conversation. Used with permission. Different life expectancies for different populations Scientists once thought the longest-living Southern right whales were 70 to 75 years old. But the new research indicates their median lifespan is about 74 years. Moreover, a few individuals can be 130 years of age, while the oldest ones could reach the ripe old age of 150 years. In contrast, their data also showed the median lifespan of North Atlantic right whales was only 22 years, with a few individuals making it to 45 years. Greg Breed, of the University of Alaska Fairbanks, said that Northern Atlantic right whales’ significantly shorter lifespans were due to human activities: North Atlantic whales have unusually short lifespans compared to other whales, but this isn’t because of intrinsic differences in biology, and they should live much longer. They’re frequently tangled in fishing gear or struck by ships, and they suffer from starvation, potentially linked to environmental changes we don’t fully understand. A Southern right whale and calf. Image via Els Vermeulen/ University of Alaska Fairbanks. Baleen whale lifespans may have been underestimated According to Breed, there had long been a lack of information about the ages of whales, leading to underestimates about their lifespans. He said: We didn’t know how to age baleen whales until 1955, which was the very end of industrial whaling. By the time we figured it out, there weren’t many old whales left to study. So, we just assumed they didn’t live that long. Current data on longevity, the scientists proposed, have been skewed by the absence of older whales decimated during industrial whaling. That industry ended just 60 years ago for most whale species. By then, many populations were less than 10% of their original size. Whale lifespan studies help guide conservation policies For most marine mammal species, an understanding of a population’s characteristics, such as lifespan, is essential for assessing how they are threatened by human activities. That, in turn, helps cooperating governments shape policy to aid in their conservation. Breed said: To attain healthy populations that include old animals, recovery might take hundreds of years. For animals that live to be 100 or 130 and only give birth to a surviving calf every 10 years or so, slow recovery is to be expected. He added that older whales are critically important to a healthy population: There’s a growing recognition that recovery isn’t just about biomass or the number of individuals. It’s about the knowledge these animals pass along to the next generation. That knowledge isn’t just genetic, it’s cultural and behavioral. Older individuals teach survival skills. Younger animals learn by observing and copying the strategies of the older ones. Breed and his colleagues are expanding their research to other whale species to learn more about their lifespans. And they hope to better understand how whaling has impacted elder individuals and the recovery trends that lie ahead. Bottom line: Right whales in the Southern Ocean have a median lifespan of around 74 years. And they can live up to 130 years of age, twice as long as scientists thought. Source: Extreme longevity may be the rule not the exception in Balaenid whales Source: Whales can live way longer than scientists had thought, with potential lifespans as much as double previous estimate Via University of Alaska Fairbanks Read more: ‘Listening’ to save the North Atlantic right whaleThe post Right whales have a longer lifespan than scientists thought first appeared on EarthSky.

Right whales in the Southern Ocean have a median lifespan of around 74 years. And they can live for up to 130 years, twice as long as scientists thought. The post Right whales have a longer lifespan than scientists thought first appeared on EarthSky.

A large, long black animal with a tail, a right whale, in blue ocean water. A bit of a cliff in the foreground.
This is a Southern right whale in waters off South Australia in 2006. Scientists recently found that Southern right whales have a median lifespan of around 74 years. But they can live up to 130 years of age, twice as long as scientists thought. Image via robdownunder/ Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0).
  • Southern right whales live long lives. These sea mammals, which live in the Southern Ocean, have a median lifespan of about 74 years. But some individuals reach 130 years, much longer than previously estimated.
  • North Atlantic right whales face human-induced threats. They have a much shorter median lifespan of 22 years, primarily due to ship strikes, fishing gear entanglement and environmental changes.
  • Whale lifespan data is helpful for conservation efforts. Understanding whale longevity and population dynamics helps shape policies to promote recovery and protect their cultural knowledge passed through older individuals.

Right whales can live as long as 130 years

Right whales are a docile, migratory whale species that use filters in their mouths to catch small crustaceans in the ocean. The right whales that live in the North Atlantic only have a median lifespan of 22 years, due to human activities in their waters. Meanwhile, right whales in the Southern Ocean have a lifespan of around 74 years. But the University of Alaska Fairbanks said on December 20, 2024, that Southern right whales can live up to 130 years of age, twice as long as they thought.

Right whales are a type of baleen whale. The filter in their mouths is called a baleen plate.

The scientists published their study in the peer-reviewed journal Science Advances on December 20, 2024.

The 2025 EarthSky Lunar Calendar is now available! A unique and beautiful poster-sized calendar. Get yours today!

Photographs identify and track right whales

For the past 40 years, researchers have been studying and photographing individual right whales. South African scientists have been monitoring Southern right whales (Eubalaena australis). Meanwhile, North American scientists have been collecting data on the critically endangered North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis). Both species are closely related and have similar life histories.

Each whale has a unique pattern of thickened skin on the head, called callosities. So you can identify individuals by their unique callosity head pattern.

Researchers have been identifying individual right whales in the photographs and tracking them from one year to the next. Just as important, they have taken note of which whales stopped appearing in photos over subsequent years, presumably due to death.

The head of a black right whale with white markings on it. It is half submerged in blue ocean water.
The head of a North Atlantic right whale, showing thickened skin on the head, or callosities. These markings are like a unique fingerprint to each whale. Image via Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, NOAA Research Permit # 775-1875/ Flickr (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

Survivorship curves

In this new study, scientists conducted a mathematical analysis of right whale sighting records based on those 40 years of photographs, concentrating on female whales. (They first identified them as females by the presence of a calf.)

The researchers used this data to construct survivorship curves. This is a graph that displays projected life expectancies, showing the proportion of a population that survives to each age. (Insurance companies use a similar technique to calculate human life expectancies.)

A graph showing three curves, one in blue for North Atlantic right whales, red for Southern right whales, and black thin dashes for humans. The left axis is labeled “Percent alive” and the bottom axis is labeled “Age.” The blue curve is steep and ends around age 50, while the red curve extends past 130 years. The human curve ends around 100 years.
This graph shows survivorship curves for female right whales. The curves are based on 40 years of photographic identifications. Here, scientists were able to mathematically project a very long lifespan for Southern right whales. In contrast, the blue curve for North Atlantic right whales shows significantly shorter lifespans due to human-caused activities such as net entanglements and ship collisions. The light dotted line shows how humans compare on the survivorship curves (using data from the Social Security Administration). Figure via Greg Breed/ The Conversation. Used with permission.

Different life expectancies for different populations

Scientists once thought the longest-living Southern right whales were 70 to 75 years old. But the new research indicates their median lifespan is about 74 years. Moreover, a few individuals can be 130 years of age, while the oldest ones could reach the ripe old age of 150 years.

In contrast, their data also showed the median lifespan of North Atlantic right whales was only 22 years, with a few individuals making it to 45 years.

Greg Breed, of the University of Alaska Fairbanks, said that Northern Atlantic right whales’ significantly shorter lifespans were due to human activities:

North Atlantic whales have unusually short lifespans compared to other whales, but this isn’t because of intrinsic differences in biology, and they should live much longer. They’re frequently tangled in fishing gear or struck by ships, and they suffer from starvation, potentially linked to environmental changes we don’t fully understand.

A large long black animal with a tail and a few light-colored markings on the head. Next to her is a much smaller animal, her calf. They are in blue ocean water.
A Southern right whale and calf. Image via Els Vermeulen/ University of Alaska Fairbanks.

Baleen whale lifespans may have been underestimated

According to Breed, there had long been a lack of information about the ages of whales, leading to underestimates about their lifespans. He said:

We didn’t know how to age baleen whales until 1955, which was the very end of industrial whaling. By the time we figured it out, there weren’t many old whales left to study. So, we just assumed they didn’t live that long.

Current data on longevity, the scientists proposed, have been skewed by the absence of older whales decimated during industrial whaling. That industry ended just 60 years ago for most whale species. By then, many populations were less than 10% of their original size.

Whale lifespan studies help guide conservation policies

For most marine mammal species, an understanding of a population’s characteristics, such as lifespan, is essential for assessing how they are threatened by human activities. That, in turn, helps cooperating governments shape policy to aid in their conservation.

Breed said:

To attain healthy populations that include old animals, recovery might take hundreds of years. For animals that live to be 100 or 130 and only give birth to a surviving calf every 10 years or so, slow recovery is to be expected.

He added that older whales are critically important to a healthy population:

There’s a growing recognition that recovery isn’t just about biomass or the number of individuals. It’s about the knowledge these animals pass along to the next generation.

That knowledge isn’t just genetic, it’s cultural and behavioral. Older individuals teach survival skills. Younger animals learn by observing and copying the strategies of the older ones.

Breed and his colleagues are expanding their research to other whale species to learn more about their lifespans. And they hope to better understand how whaling has impacted elder individuals and the recovery trends that lie ahead.

Bottom line: Right whales in the Southern Ocean have a median lifespan of around 74 years. And they can live up to 130 years of age, twice as long as scientists thought.

Source: Extreme longevity may be the rule not the exception in Balaenid whales

Source: Whales can live way longer than scientists had thought, with potential lifespans as much as double previous estimate

Via University of Alaska Fairbanks

Read more: ‘Listening’ to save the North Atlantic right whale

The post Right whales have a longer lifespan than scientists thought first appeared on EarthSky.

Read the full story here.
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The Old Library Redevelopment Project kicked off in 2022 and will begin its restoration and construction phase in 2027, with work estimated to be completed in 2030, according to the library’s chief manuscript conservator, John Gillis. The project will address pollution and dust accumulation on the books and introduce building improvements like air purification, environmental controls and fire protection. So, while the shelves in the Old Library are normally full (stacked side by side, the books would stretch more than 6.5 miles), on the day I visited, most of them stood empty. Nearly 200,000 books have been moved out thus far, leaving just eight bays where tomes have been left in place to give visitors—up to one million annually—an idea of what the shelves look like when full. The curved ribs of the Long Room’s ceiling almost form the inverse of the raised stitching on the spines of the old books. Gillis has worked in conservation at Trinity for more than 40 years. He believes that the vast majority of surviving manuscripts from early medieval Ireland (a period spanning roughly the fifth through ninth centuries) have passed through his hands. John Gillis, chief manuscript conservator at Trinity's library Yvonne Gordon “The collection includes many incunabula—that is, books printed before 1500,” Gillis says. While the library’s history stretches back to when Trinity College was established in Dublin in 1592, the collection boasts manuscripts and books much older than that. (The Old Library building itself was constructed between 1712 and 1732.) The library’s holdings include 30,000 books, pamphlets and maps acquired from a prominent Dutch family in 1802; the largest collection of children’s books in Ireland; and the first book printed in the Irish language, which dates to 1571. Other highlights range from Ireland’s only copy of William Shakespeare’s First Folio to national treasures like the Book of Kells, a stunning medieval manuscript. How the Old Library Redevelopment Project is transforming the Long Room Gillis’ work immerses him in the minutiae of lettering used in 400-year-old texts and the hairline cracks of vellum pages in early Irish manuscripts. But he has also been tasked with overseeing a huge project: the decanting, or temporary removal, of the Old Library’s entire collection of 700,000 objects, which will be moved into storage while the building is being refurbished. Old Library Redevelopment Project: Conserving the Old Library for future generations Despite the empty bookcases, visitors streaming through the Long Room can still admire artifacts like the Brian Boru harp, an instrument thought to date to the late Middle Ages that served as the model for the coat of arms of Ireland and the Guinness trademark. Temporary exhibitions are on view, too: for example, displays on Trinity alumni such as Nobel laureate Samuel Beckett, Gulliver’s Travels author Jonathan Swift and Dracula author Bram Stoker. Beyond the magnificent visual experience of standing in the Long Room, a visit here subtly hits the senses. The temperature is cooler than in adjacent rooms, and that familiar old book smell (caused by the chemical decomposition of paper and bookbindings) is readily apparent. The light is gentle; the acoustics are of hushed conversations and footfall. Will the space still feel—and smell—the same after the conservation project? “That’s a good question,” says Gillis. “Who knows?” Looking at the barren book bays, the conservator describes a remarkable phenomenon that occurred when the shelves were first emptied. “The whole building reacted to all of that weight being removed, as if stretching,” he recalls. “You had movement of floors, creaking, nails coming up out of floorboards.” Staff have observed changes to sound and light, too: Without the books acting as a buffer, the room is more echoey, with extra light pouring through the shelves. Bay B Timelapse - Old Library Decant Gillis says the temperature in the Long Room is always colder than outside. “This is a great old building for looking after itself,” he explains. “Although you get fluctuations in this building, nothing is ever too extreme.” The lack of worm infestations and mold growth show that the structure’s environmental conditions were in relatively good shape. But the building was leaky, and dust and dirt left behind by visitors, Dublin’s historic oil-burning lamps, and even vehicle exhaust took their toll. There’s less pollution nowadays, but it does still get in, especially when the library’s windows are opened in the summer. A new climate control system will address these issues. How conservators are safeguarding the Old Library’s collections It has taken a team of some 75 people around two years to remove the majority of the books from the Long Room’s shelves. This is the first time in nearly 300 years that they’ve been barren. “Nobody living has ever seen these shelves empty,” Gillis says. Wearing gloves, protective jackets and dust masks, staff carefully removed and cleaned each volume. They measured the books, added a radio-frequency identification (RFID) tag for cataloging and security purposes, and then either sent the texts on for conservation if damaged or to storage in a special climate-controlled, off-site facility if still in good condition. Gillis has worked in conservation for more than 40 years. Yvonne Gordon Removing all of the books from a single bay took up to one month each time. Exactly how daunting was this task, especially getting the books down from high shelves? According to Gillis, having the big, heavy books on the lower shelves helped. “You don’t want to be up a ladder trying to take off a big folio,” he says. The last eight bays will be emptied just before the library building closes in 2027, and all 200,000 books will be returned when the refurbishment is complete. Because the volumes are so old, every step of the delicate task has prioritized conservation. Each book has been gently vacuumed. “The suction level was reduced so it wasn’t too aggressive,” says Gillis. Even the dust—many of the books had not left the library for hundreds of years—was the subject of a scholarly study. The main findings were that the dust was made of organic material such as hair fibers and dead skin cells from visitors and staff. The books are stored off-site in special fireproof and waterproof archival boxes. Despite the fact that approximately 30,000 boxes are stacked in the warehouse, every tome remains available for research during the redevelopment project. That’s where the RFID tags and barcodes come in: When a book is requested, the library locates the relevant box and makes the text available to the researcher in a reading room. Conserving the Book of Kells and other medieval manuscripts The library’s most prized object, the Book of Kells, is currently housed below the Long Room in the Treasury, though it will be moved to the refurbished Printing House when conservation work begins in 2027. This manuscript, which contains the four Gospels of the Christian New Testament, dates to around 800, when it was likely illustrated by monks in an Irish monastery on the island of Iona in Scotland. The Book of Kells’ ornate decorations of Christian crosses and Celtic art have won it worldwide admiration. Need to know: Why is the Book of Kells so significant? According to Trinity College Dublin, the more than 1,200-year-old Book of Kells is distinct from other illuminated manuscripts “due to the sheer complexity and beauty of its ornamentation.” Featuring more adornments than other surviving manuscripts, the text has been described as the “work of angels.” The manuscript was gifted to Trinity College by Henry Jones, the bishop of Meath, in 1661. It’s displayed in a glass case in a darkened room whose light, humidity and temperature are carefully monitored to ensure the volume’s preservation. The specific pages on display are rotated every 8 to 12 weeks, and photography is not allowed. As well as overseeing the Book of Kells’ care, Gillis’ department looks after the storage and conservation of the library’s early printed books and special collections. While most of the Old Library’s contents have been moved to the off-site warehouse during the redevelopment, these “oldest and most valuable” holdings, as Trinity’s website describes them, are being kept on campus in a new storage space in the Ussher Library. Even in storage, the manuscripts need to be kept under specific conditions. Most were written on animal skins that are sensitive to humidity and temperature. All of the storage spaces are low-oxygen, which helps with preservation. Repairing and conserving damaged manuscripts is a big part of Gillis’ job. He also works to prevent damage to some of the collection’s earliest items. To date, Gillis has led the conservation of an 8th-century, pocket-size collection of gospels; a 7th-century Bible that is believed to be the earliest surviving Irish codex; and the 12th-century Book of Leinster, one of the earliest known Irish-language manuscripts. Illustrations from the Book of Kells Public domain via Wikimedia Commons When I visited the conservation lab earlier this year, Gillis was working on the Book of Leinster’s codicology—essentially, looking at the volume’s physical features to determine how it was put together and what it says about the era it was created in. The manuscript came to Trinity in the 18th century as a pile of gatherings in folders in a box, without a cover or binding. “Nobody has ever seen it as a single, complete volume,” Gillis says. “There remains the question: Was it bound ever?” Like the Book of Kells and most other early medieval Irish manuscripts, the Book of Leinster was written on vellum, or calf skin. To repair and stabilize the manuscript, Gillis is grafting new calf skins ordered from a specialist supplier onto the pages. Vellum can be challenging to work with, as aging and humidity cause tiny cracks and tears. While the lab is full of modern scientific equipment like conditioning chambers, humidifiers, fume hoods and freezers, sometimes traditional methods work best. To repair the Book of Leinster, conservators are using materials derived from casein, a protein found in milk, and isinglass, a collagen obtained from sturgeon fish, as an adhesive. Pages from the 12th-century Book of Leinster Yvonne Gordon “As we develop our conservation methods and approaches, they are typically based on the medieval practice, because they understood the quality of materials,” says Gillis. “It’s important that we remember the craft, that we are using skills, methods and materials that were developed in medieval times and are still relevant.” Trinity’s conservation work makes use of the latest scientific developments, too. A tool that is yielding new information about the manuscripts is DNA analysis, which can reveal the age, sex and species of animal that vellum and parchment are made from and, most importantly, where the skins came from. Medieval books transferred hands so often, it can be hard to trace their place of origin. While the DNA testing technique is still in early stages, Gillis says that it can “answer a lot of questions we have.” Already, the team has found that male calves weren’t the only members of their species whose skin was turned into vellum, as was previously thought. Female calves were slaughtered for this purpose, too. Digitization and the significance of the redevelopment project In addition to conserving the Old Library’s holdings, the ongoing project opens up new ways of experiencing them. After seeing the Book of Kells, visitors can enjoy an immersive digital experience that shows what’s in the library’s collections and tells the manuscript’s background story in an engaging way. Trinity staff are also digitizing many of the library’s collections, making them freely available online to audiences outside of academia. “This process of digitization enables us to democratize that access to anyone, anywhere globally who has an internet connection,” says Laura Shanahan, head of research collections at the Trinity library. Gillis hopes the project will inspire other preservation efforts in Ireland and overseas. For Trinity, the focus is on making the library’s collections broadly accessible while also protecting and caring for them so they survive long into the future. View of the immersive Book of Kells Experience Trinity College Dublin “The importance of preserving this material is to ensure that content is accessible for future generations of researchers who are looking back in time in 100, 200 or 300 years’ time to understand the evolution of our society, the cyclical nature of the issues that recur in history and the documentary heritage around everything from personal identity to how the world has evolved,” Shanahan says. Pádraig Ó Macháin, an expert on Irish manuscripts at University College Cork who is not involved in the conservation project, says: All libraries are sanctuaries for the written and the printed word, and hubs for the dissemination of knowledge. Libraries like Trinity’s, through their collections of incunabula and of medieval manuscripts, preserve unique records of the progress of learning through the centuries. They go to the very heart of civilization and articulate the curriculum vitae of the human race. Ó Macháin, who specializes in the study of Ireland’s handwritten heritage, adds, “Because libraries have a duty of care for future generations, it is vital that their capacity for preservation and transmission is periodically renewed or overhauled in a thorough and structured way, such as is taking place in Trinity at present.” A 2016 photo of shelves in the Long Room David Madison / Getty Images Get the latest History stories in your inbox.

Animals
Chemicals
Climate

‘I kept smelling a horrible nasty smell’: the risks of England’s old dumping grounds

For some, the smell brings on nausea and headaches. Others fear ‘forever chemicals’ seeping into the waterUK and Europe’s hidden landfills at risk of leaking toxic waste into water supplies“I just kept smelling this horrible, nasty smell … like animal excrement, and I was wondering what it was,” says Jess Brown, from Fleetwood, Lancashire.Brown’s mother suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and she believes the smells make it worse. She also worries for her eight-year-old daughter, whose asthma worsens when the odour seeps indoors. Continue reading...

“I just kept smelling this horrible, nasty smell … like animal excrement, and I was wondering what it was,” says Jess Brown, from Fleetwood, Lancashire.Brown’s mother suffers from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and she believes the smells make it worse. She also worries for her eight-year-old daughter, whose asthma worsens when the odour seeps indoors.The stench was traced to the Jameson Road landfill, reopened by Transwaste Recycling & Aggregates Limited in late 2023, after the previous owners Suez stopped accepting waste in 2017. The Environment Agency says that reopening long‑inactive landfills can release gases including hydrogen sulphide, which produces a “rotten egg” odour.Determined to act, Brown launched a Facebook group that quickly drew more than 4,000 members reporting headaches, nausea, and breathing problems.Thousands of odour complaints followed, prompting an enforcement order in April 2024 to curb hydrogen sulphide emissions, which have been linked to health problems including respiratory and eye irritation, as well as neurological and cardiovascular effects.Jess Brown and her mother Janice. Jess believes the smell from Jameson Road landfill exacerbates her mother’s chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Photograph: Jess BrownAfter partial compliance, Transwaste resumed tipping at the site, which sits in an erosion and flood zone on the banks of the protected River Wyre. This prompted a second enforcement order six weeks after the first.In March this year, the company’s licence was suspended until new gas extraction infrastructure was installed. This took place in April, and topsoil is still being added to the site to reduce emissions. The Environment Agency says pollutant levels generally remain within health limits, though odours continue to cause discomfort.Barbara Kneale, a retired doctor who lives near the site, said: “Fleetwood is classed as a deprived area and has twice the national average of chronic respiratory diseases … people with diseases, like asthma or chronic obstructive airways have exacerbations of their symptoms. Kids haven’t been able to play out.”Nor is air quality the only concern. The Guardian and Watershed Investigations found waste legally dumped at Jameson Road landfill by AGC Chemicals until 2014 contained the potentially carcinogenic “forever chemical” perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), which has since been banned. The site also borders a former ICI landfill, which is thought to have received PFOA waste for decades.Retired doctor and Fleetwood resident Barbara Kneale outside Jameson Road landfill. Photograph: Barbara KnealeSampling of water next to both landfills carried out by Watershed suggested the sites are leaching forever chemicals, more properly known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), into the Wyre.David Megson of Manchester Metropolitan University said: “These PFAS results are a cause for concern, with concentrations of PFOA 5-10 times above environmental quality standards. This would indicate that those landfill sites do contain PFAS, and that [they] are leaking out.“The landfills are situated right next to the coast, so with increasing sea levels there is concern that the situation could get worse.”Someone familiar with ICI’s chlorine-producing Hillhouse site on the edge of Fleetwood in the 1970s, who preferred to remain anonymous, said: “Effluent from different parts of Hillhouse was disposed of in the ICI landfill. It was massive.“It was a system of open, shallow lagoons. One was a lake of acid. Parts of the waste was liquid sludge and some white solids went in there … There was no lining in the landfill.”Though a multi-agency probe into AGC Chemicals found PFOA in nearby soil and warned against eating local produce, the landfill itself remains excluded from investigation. The Environment Agency says it will act only if there is evidence not only that contaminants are present in hazardous amounts but also that they could likely spread harmfully.Jameson Road landfill is expected to operate until 2027. Photograph: Leana HoseaHowever, the community wants the site shut as soon as possible, even if it risks a repeat of the situation at Walleys Quarry landfill in Staffordshire. Here, the operator went bust and sidestepped costs after a closure order, leaving the Environment Agency responsible for managing the site.“I think it will be the same situation even if it closes when it’s meant to,” Brown says, referring to the end of Transwaste’s lease in 2027. “It’ll be left to the Environment Agency or the taxpayer [to foot the bill for long-term management].“It’ll probably be an issue for years to come, but it’s better to close it now than add more and more damage to what’s already going to happen.”skip past newsletter promotionThe planet's most important stories. Get all the week's environment news - the good, the bad and the essentialPrivacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. If you do not have an account, we will create a guest account for you on theguardian.com to send you this newsletter. You can complete full registration at any time. For more information about how we use your data see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.after newsletter promotionAccording to Transwaste, the older hazardous landfill is closed and capped with an impermeable layer of clay, meaning gas and leachate (liquid that has percolated through the waste) is fully contained, and the only run-off would be uncontaminated rainwater.It said: “To claim that there have been odours for 18 months is not correct. We acknowledge that there have been occasional odours which have coincided with essential engineering works on site.“The ongoing Environment Agency air quality monitoring survey concluded that emissions were largely insignificant and air quality is well within WHO [World Health Organisation] and UK regulatory safety standards.”In reference to the sampling that found PFOA, Transwaste said the tests were carried out in a spot regularly covered by the River Wyre, which is known to already have high levels of PFOA contamination as a legacy of the chemicals industry, “so a PFOA reading is not unexpected”.It added: “To put this into context, the test result showed 560 nanograms per litre (ng/l), whereas the River Wyre, when tested in 2021, had levels of PFAS/PFOA measured at 12,100 ng/l, with fish in the river containing 11,000 ng/l.”Transwaste said that the area had been used as settlement lagoons for the chemicals industry since the 1940s, before being used for landfill, and so “again, PFAS/PFOA readings would not be unexpected in the vicinity”.NPL Group, which manages the former ICI landfill, declined to comment.Wyre Borough Council said: “There are no plans to renew the lease held by Transwaste Recycling and Aggregates Ltd beyond its current lifespan, which is due to end in March 2027. Transwaste is legally obligated to remediate the site as part of its planning consent.”Paul Jackson lives next to a former landfill site in Cheshire. Photograph: suppliedElsewhere, there are concerns that older landfills predating pollution laws may also contaminate groundwater, rivers and even drinking water.At the former Commonside landfill in Cheshire last year, levels of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB), which have been linked to immune, reproductive, nervous, and endocrine harm, were found to be 1,000 times above UK norms. PCBs have polluted the area’s streams since the 1970s and, despite a fine being issued to the site’s owner in 1994, no cleanup followed. The council is now reassessing the site.“It’s a sham,” says local farmer Paul Jackson, who lives next door to the Commonside landfill, which closed in the 1970s. “There’s three quarters of a million tonnes of chemicals, rubble and waste, and 50 different chemicals that’ve been tipped in there.” He added that sludge regularly comes off the tip, causing him to worry it could pollute the drinking water.United Utilities, which manages water supply in the north-west, said water quality has remained good. It added: “Since being made aware of concerns about PCBs [in the area], we have conducted enhanced testing, these were also clear. We will continue to carry out these additional tests.”

Animals
Chemicals
Waste

A Foot-Tall Elephant? 'Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age' on Apple TV Reveals Surprising Creatures

Apple TV has launched “Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age,” a five-part series that brings the Pleistocene era to life with stunning visuals

It was an incredible time when the Earth was going through immense systemic changes and was filled with often nightmarish creatures — carnivorous kangaroos, 14-foot-tall bears and armadillos bigger than cars. Sid the sloth's eyes would bulge even more.A hyper-realistic picture of life during that Pleistocene era emerges with Apple TV's five-part, computer-driven “Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age,” which takes place millions of years after the dinosaurs’ extinction.“Nobody’s made a natural history representation of these creatures behaving and interacting in the way that we have in this series,” says Mike Gunton, co-executive producer and senior executive at the storied BBC Natural History Unit. This is the third chapter in the “Prehistoric Planet” series, blending cinematic storytelling with photorealistic visual effects and the latest scientific knowledge to give viewers a treat: Nostrils flare, fur is rustled by howling winds and eyelashes twitch. “Within one second of turning the show on, I do not want people to think, ‘Oh, it’s a CGI show.’ I want them to think, ‘Oh my gosh, what’s that animal? Where did they film that?'” Gunton says.The filmmaking style mimics the visual vocabulary of documentary nature shows like “Planet Earth” or “Blue Planet” but conjures up animals dead for millions of years with the latest digital innovations. “Even five years ago, we couldn’t have done it,” says Gunton. “Even in the time we’ve been making it, the acceleration of the power of the visual effects has been absolutely noticeable.”The series is narrated by Golden Globe- and Olivier Award-winner Tom Hiddleston, with an original score by Hans Zimmer, Anže Rozman and Kara Talve from Bleeding Fingers Music.Jon Favreau is co-executive producer and came at the series after directing the live-action/CGI “The Jungle Book” in 2016 with Idris Elba, Lupita Nyong’o and Scarlett Johansson, and 2019's “The Lion King,” with a voice cast including Donald Glover and Chiwetel Ejiofor. “I was very struck by the photorealism we were able to achieve in both of those projects and this seemed like a really good application for using realism in both animation and environmental design and render to create the illusion that you’re actually looking at something real and to apply it to dinosaurs and ice age megafauna,” he says.Gunton, who has produced such nature shows as “Hidden Kingdoms” and “The Green Planet,” turned to the topic of the ice age more than three years ago after wrapping up two dino-filled previous chapters and quickly learned he had a lot to learn. “I was thinking, ‘Well, this is all going to be ice and woolly mammoths and mastodons and saber-tooth tigers,” he says. What he found out was there wasn’t just one ice age but a series of eight, and while as much as a quarter of Earth’s landmass was covered by ice, the rest was becoming arid and desert, changing animals' evolution.There were Diprotodons, rhino-sized relatives of wombats and the largest marsupials of all time. There were giant short-faced kangaroos and 14-foot-tall bears. One of the cutest creatures is a dwarf Stegodon, which resembled a 3-foot elephant. The filmmakers added its baby, standing just 12 inches, and we meet him playing with a butterfly. “A swishing trunk and tail means a Stegodon wants to play,” says Hiddleston. But the little guy gets into trouble when a gang of 6-foot giant storks come hunting. Mom, thankfully, comes to the rescue. “In a world where birds can eat elephants, you should never stray too far from Mother,” Hiddleston concludes.“These animals feel alive,” says Gunton. “That comes from spending 35, nearly 40 years filming animals, watching animals, knowing how they react to each other and also knowing how to photograph these kind of behaviors.”While the look of the series is cutting edge, Favreau points out that it was crafted with artists and traditional technological techniques, not AI, and that helps it connect.“At the end of the day, to be working side by side with artists, animators, filmmakers — there is something that creates a very specific and personal and emotional connection with tremendous specificity, which is still something that eludes the other technologies.”During the ice age, sea levels dropped, creating land bridges and connecting North and South America to create a kind of animal superhighway, with creatures going in both directions and encountering new rivals and food.The filmmakers leaned on the visual effects company Framestore and consulted over 50 ice age specialists to create the series, often using puppets to get the shots right before removing them and adding the visual effects. Fossil records are better than with dinosaurs because many of the ice age creatures were captured in the permafrost.“We see that the species that were most able to adapt still survive to this day, and there are many that didn’t,” says Favreau. “We’re capturing a moment here where there was transition in relatively short amount of time. Even though it would be thousands of years, it’s still a blink of an eye in the history of our planet.”“Prehistoric Planet: Ice Age,” tells little vignettes for each animal, showing how they hunt or mate, travel and play. Gunton says he's not interested in making an endless loop of predators chasing prey. He'd rather show how a pregnant woolly mammoth lost in a blizzard can be protected by her herd.“I think that audiences are more engaged in complexity of relationships and what animals do and how they behave with each other,'' he said. “The voyeuristic kill doesn’t interest me particularly, and I don’t think it interests most of the audience.”Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.Photos You Should See – Nov. 2025

Animals
Extinction
Food

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