tag:theconversation.com,2011:/au/topics/antarctic-blue-whale-4280/articlesAntarctic blue whale – The Conversation2021-01-01T10:24:33Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1514872021-01-01T10:24:33Z2021-01-01T10:24:33ZThe hopeful return of polar whales<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/373261/original/file-20201207-21-1m5stmt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C9657%2C5574&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/beautiful-view-icebergs-whale-antarctica-543673003">Alexey Suloev/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The bleak history of whaling pushed many species to the brink of extinction, even in the remote waters of the north and south poles. Over 1.3 million whales were killed in just 70 years around Antarctica alone. The scale of this industrial harvest <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0954102011000708">completely decimated</a> many populations of large whales in <a href="https://theconversation.com/an-ocean-like-no-other-the-southern-oceans-ecological-richness-and-significance-for-global-climate-151084">the Southern Ocean</a>. But nearly 40 years after commercial whaling ended, we’re finally seeing signs that some of the most heavily-targeted species are recovering. </p>
<p>In a recent study, scientists reported that blue whales, once prized by whalers for their gargantuan size, are <a href="https://www.int-res.com/articles/esr2020/43/n043p359.pdf">increasing in number</a> in the waters surrounding the sub-Antarctic island of South Georgia, with 41 new individuals catalogued over the past nine years. South Georgia saw around <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-54994814">3,000 blue whales killed</a> each year at the hunt’s peak in the early 20th century. The waters surrounding the island are rich in the krill these whales eat, and scientists believe their return heralds a “rediscovery” of this oceanic larder by new generations.</p>
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<img alt="An aerial view of a blue whale surfacing." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374187/original/file-20201210-20-ug446e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374187/original/file-20201210-20-ug446e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374187/original/file-20201210-20-ug446e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374187/original/file-20201210-20-ug446e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374187/original/file-20201210-20-ug446e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374187/original/file-20201210-20-ug446e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374187/original/file-20201210-20-ug446e.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Blue whales are thought to be the largest animals to ever exist.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_whale#/media/File:Anim1754_-_Flickr_-_NOAA_Photo_Library.jpg">Anim Flickr/NOAA Photo Library</a></span>
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<p>Similar signs of recovery have been documented for humpback whales around the <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsos.180017">western Antarctic Peninsula</a>. In the far north, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1748-7692.2004.tb01191.x">western Arctic bowhead whales</a> appear to be <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/dec/12/bowhead-whale-arctic-recovery-scientists">approaching numbers</a> last seen in pre-whaling days, while fin and minke whales are now regularly seen <a href="https://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2016.0251">in the Chukchi Sea</a> near Alaska.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369797/original/file-20201117-13-180ibt9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/369797/original/file-20201117-13-180ibt9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369797/original/file-20201117-13-180ibt9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369797/original/file-20201117-13-180ibt9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=401&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369797/original/file-20201117-13-180ibt9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369797/original/file-20201117-13-180ibt9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/369797/original/file-20201117-13-180ibt9.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=504&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<p><strong><em>This story is part of <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/topics/oceans-21-96784">Oceans 21</a></em></strong>
<br><em>Our series on the global ocean opened with <a href="https://oceans21.netlify.app/">five in depth profiles</a>. Look out for new articles on the state of our oceans in the lead up to the UN’s next climate conference, COP26. The series is brought to you by The Conversation’s international network.</em></p>
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<p>With the whaling industry gone, polar seas are among the best places for these ocean giants to re-establish their populations. Their habitats here are still relatively pristine and, for the moment, contain fairly stable food supplies. <a href="https://theconversation.com/arctic-ocean-climate-change-is-flooding-the-remote-north-with-light-and-new-species-150157">The Arctic</a> still hosts subsistence harvests by indigenous communities, though these hunts are carefully managed.</p>
<p>The 1984 suspension of commercial whaling prevented the extinction of large whales in polar waters, but it cannot protect them from the new pressures which will emerge as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.biocon.2018.02.021">global warming</a> reshapes these regions. So what do these rapid changes mean for the still fragile recoveries of polar whale species?</p>
<h2>Let’s not blow it</h2>
<p>Over the next few decades, whales at the poles will face several new sources of stress, from warming waters disrupting their food supply to pollution and commercial fishing. With less sea ice and longer ice-free periods in the summer, easier access to the Arctic and Southern oceans and their resources is tempting many industries to expand or establish themselves in these remote waters. Vessel traffic, particularly <a href="https://thebarentsobserver.com/en/industry-and-energy/2020/07/ships-moving-arctic-sea-ice-level-reaches-record-low">in the Arctic</a>, is increasing, and <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/115/29/7617">whales</a> are among the <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2019.00647/full">most vulnerable</a> to the increasing noise and the potentially lethal threat of collision.</p>
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<img alt="A pod of narwhals, with one tusk exposed, swimming together." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374190/original/file-20201210-15-16qaik0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374190/original/file-20201210-15-16qaik0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=310&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374190/original/file-20201210-15-16qaik0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=310&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374190/original/file-20201210-15-16qaik0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=310&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374190/original/file-20201210-15-16qaik0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374190/original/file-20201210-15-16qaik0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374190/original/file-20201210-15-16qaik0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=390&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Narwhals are an Arctic species that is particularly vulnerable to boat traffic.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narwhal#/media/File:Pod_Monodon_monoceros.jpg">Dr. Kristin Laidre/NOAA Photo Library</a></span>
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<p>We’ve learned how to minimise the impacts of human activity on whales in busier waters outside of the Arctic and Antarctic. As part of an ongoing research project funded by the European Commission, myself and colleagues are trying to apply those lessons in the Arctic, to <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ocecoaman.2018.03.042">help protect whales</a> from the growing presence of shipping.</p>
<p>We know that slowing vessels down reduces the likelihood of fatal collisions <a href="https://conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1523-1739.2009.01329.x">with whales</a>, and it has the added benefit of reducing <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmars.2019.00344/full">how much noise the ships produce</a>. Much like the speed restrictions planners place in busy town centres to reduce the risk of cars hitting pedestrians, we can create slow-down areas for ships in locations we know are used by whales. </p>
<p>The challenge in the Arctic is finding where such measures will be most effective, where they are safe to be implemented (ice already makes sailing in the Arctic dangerous) and how we can ensure such measures are carried out when people aren’t around to easily monitor compliance.</p>
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<img alt="Two polar bears eat a seal on sea ice with a ship in the background." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374193/original/file-20201210-13-5xx8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/374193/original/file-20201210-13-5xx8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374193/original/file-20201210-13-5xx8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374193/original/file-20201210-13-5xx8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374193/original/file-20201210-13-5xx8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374193/original/file-20201210-13-5xx8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/374193/original/file-20201210-13-5xx8b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The Arctic isn’t as isolated and ice-bound as it once was.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/pair-polar-bears-bloody-killed-seal-540005638">Ondrej Prosicky/Shutterstock</a></span>
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<p>One source of stress that we can monitor and assess quite well is the prevalence of marine noise pollution, thanks to underwater recording devices called hydrophones. Large ships produce loud, low-frequency noise that can travel far underwater. Whales rely on sound to help them navigate their dark underwater habitats, but vessel noise can prevent them communicating and foraging effectively. It’s a bit like trying to talk to your friend in a crowded restaurant. </p>
<p>But for whales, this can be more than a simple annoyance, it can be deadly: <a href="https://besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1365-2435.12871">one study</a> found that ambient noise increased the risk of humpback mothers and calves being separated. Research is now underway <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0025326X17307622">in the Arctic</a> to identify areas where increasing noise from ships may be affecting whales, and where action – such as moving shipping lanes further away – might help.</p>
<p>In many cases, fascination has replaced greed in our relationship with whales. We now understand them as useful indicators of ocean health, as well as highly intelligent beings with complex cultures which we have an obligation to protect.</p>
<p>Still, it has still taken more than 40 years to get where we are, and the fact that many whale populations – including <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/mms.12648">belugas</a>, <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rsbl.2020.0148">bowheads</a> and some <a href="https://doi.org/10.3354/meps13329">humpbacks</a> – are still struggling, suggests we still have a way to go. Not all the species commercial whalers once hunted appear to be recovering, even with long-term protection measures. Sperm whales in <a href="https://doi.org/10.3354/esr00584">the southern hemisphere</a> and western grey whales in <a href="https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-58435-3">the Russian Arctic</a> are notable examples.</p>
<p>As scientists, we still have much to learn. But we know enough to understand that a far-sighted view of the needs and vulnerabilities of these beautiful creatures is necessary to preserve a future for them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/151487/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Lauren McWhinnie receives funding from the European Commissions H2020 funding scheme and has recieved funding from Department of Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Transport Canada, CHONe and MEOPAR. </span></em></p>Whales are rediscovering their old haunts in the Arctic and Southern oceans after centuries of hunting.Lauren McWhinnie, Assistant Professor in Marine Geography, Heriot-Watt UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/559412016-03-08T18:58:35Z2016-03-08T18:58:35ZAntarctica’s blue whales are split into three distinct populations<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/114243/original/image-20160308-15328-1oky88f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">DNA analysis reveals that there are three populations of Antarctic blue whales.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Paula Olson, courtesy of IWC</span>, <span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Antarctica’s critically endangered blue whales, the world’s largest animal, are made up of three populations, according to our new <a href="http://www.nature.com/articles/srep22291">DNA analysis</a>. </p>
<p>Although the groups occur together when feeding in Antarctic waters, they are genetically distinct. This suggests that the three groups breed in different locations – possibly even different oceans – when they head north in the winter.</p>
<p>If we can find out where they go, and what hazards they face on the way, we will be a step closer to helping them recover from their near-annihilation by whalers during the 20th century.</p>
<h2>Hidden giants</h2>
<p>It is a daunting task to understand the ecology of the Antarctic blue whale (<em>Balaenoptera musculus intermedia</em>). Even though they can weigh more than 160 tonnes – the heaviest ever known animal – and reach more than 30 metres in length, locating such a rare and highly mobile species in a vast and remote ocean can be like finding a needle in a haystack. And even having tracked them down, it can be hard to deduce anything about their population structure.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/114237/original/image-20160308-15323-138k6aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/114237/original/image-20160308-15323-138k6aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114237/original/image-20160308-15323-138k6aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114237/original/image-20160308-15323-138k6aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114237/original/image-20160308-15323-138k6aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114237/original/image-20160308-15323-138k6aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/114237/original/image-20160308-15323-138k6aw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">The largest animal in the world.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Paula Olson, courtesy of IWC</span></span>
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<p>By comparing similarities and differences in the DNA of individuals, we can tell which individuals are part of the same population and estimate the number of populations. Individuals from the same breeding population are more genetically similar than those from different populations. But we need recently collected DNA samples to do this for current populations.</p>
<p>The standard way to get DNA from a blue whale is to take a biopsy by firing a dart that collects a small piece of skin and blubber, bounces off the whale and floats on the water for collection. It is akin to a pinprick for an animal as massive as a whale.</p>
<p>Long before we started working with blue whales in 2007, expeditions have been <a href="https://iwc.int/sower">carried out under the auspices of the International Whaling Commission</a> to research Antarctic whales. These expeditions involved collecting precious biopsy samples from blue whales and there is now a collection stretching back to 1990.</p>
<p>We were granted access to samples, totalling 142 whales, and used these to create the largest and therefore most powerful genetic data set so far created for Antarctic blue whales. As our research <a href="http://www.nature.com/articles/srep22291">published in Nature’s Scientific Reports</a> shows, we found that these whales fall into three genetically distinct groups.</p>
<h2>Where are these populations?</h2>
<p>Blue whales, like many other whales, migrate between their Antarctic summer feeding grounds and their winter breeding grounds at lower latitudes.</p>
<p>We know Antarctic blue whales feed in the Antarctic, which is where they were hunted during whaling in the 20th century and where the biopsy samples were collected.</p>
<p>We found that individuals from the three populations occur together throughout the Antarctic, although possibly in different proportions in different areas. This is probably because the blue whales need to rove long distances around Antarctica to find the massive amounts of krill that make up their sole food source.</p>
<p><iframe id="tc-infographic-236" class="tc-infographic" height="400" src="https://cdn.theconversation.com/infographics/236/bc14e5189a4da42a31724b8bc8aaf0f2ed2217a8/site/index.html" width="100%" style="border: none" frameborder="0"></iframe></p>
<p><strong>Distribution of samples from the three genetically distinct populations of Antarctic blue whales</strong></p>
<p>We suspect that the three populations go their separate ways when they head north to breed – presumably heading into the three major Southern Hemisphere ocean basins: the South Pacific, South Atlantic and Indian Oceans. </p>
<p>The next step will be to confirm this by finding their breeding grounds. This would involve satellite-tagging whales in Antarctic waters and then watching where they go. More biopsy samples could then be taken at the breeding grounds to confirm which populations are which.</p>
<h2>Knowledge for conservation</h2>
<p>Understanding the number of populations and their distribution is vital for helping Antarctica’s blue whales recover from 20th-century whaling, which reduced their numbers from <a href="http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1748-7692.2004.tb01190.x/abstract;jsessionid=9AD2973A594FC64045ED1627E769B019.d02t03">239,000 to just 360 individuals</a>. While they are now <a href="http://www.marinemammals.gov.au/sorp/antarctic-blue-whale-project">protected from whaling</a>, they remain <a href="http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/41713/0">critically endangered</a>.</p>
<p>Some populations may be more endangered than others and may face different human threats along their migration routes and at their breeding grounds. Failing to take conservation action at a population level could therefore lead to local extinctions at these locations.</p>
<p>One threat that differs in intensity between locations is noise pollution, such as from seismic surveys for oil and gas as well as shipping activity. These noises can be heard underwater hundreds of kilometres from their source. Whales communicate through sound, so noise pollution can hinder their communications or, in extreme cases, make areas uninhabitable.</p>
<p>Our latest findings, together with our previous work on <a href="http://www.abc.net.au/science/articles/2012/11/19/3635942.htm">hybridisation</a>, <a href="http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10592-010-0121-9">connectivity</a> and <a href="http://blogs.flinders.edu.au/flinders-news/2015/05/07/low-gene-diversity-in-blue-whales-is-natural-not-man-made/">population history</a> of blue whales, provides important pieces in the puzzle of this species. But we are still at the tip of the iceberg in our understanding of the world’s largest animal and in the pathway to their recovery from whaling.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/55941/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Catherine R. M. Attard has received funding from the Australian Marine Mammal Centre of the Department of the Environment.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Luciana Möller has received funding from the Australian Marine Mammal Centre of the Department of the Environment.</span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Luciano Beheregaray receives funding from the Australian Research Council.</span></em></p>Antarctica’s blue whales all feed in the same place. But a new genetic analysis suggests they are actually three separate populations that breed in different parts of the globe.Catherine R. M. Attard, Lecturer in Molecular Ecology, Flinders UniversityLuciana Möller, Associate Professor in Marine Biology, Flinders UniversityLuciano Beheregaray, Professor in Biodiversity Genetics and ARC Future Fellow, Flinders UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/389412015-03-23T12:35:53Z2015-03-23T12:35:53Z‘Shakespeare of music’ finally gets his own blue plaque<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/75672/original/image-20150323-17699-1l81cg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Showing how it's done.</span> </figcaption></figure><p>London is about to get its latest blue plaque. A building on Great Pulteney Street in Soho will soon be marked as the site of the house where the Austrian composer, Joseph Haydn, lived from January 1791 to July 1792. </p>
<p>Located in the middle of fashionable Soho it was conveniently close to the Hanover Square Concert Rooms, where Haydn was resident composer in a series of concerts. It was also within walking distance of the King’s Theatre in the Haymarket, for which he had been asked to write an opera and a few minutes away from a Catholic chapel in Golden Square, where Haydn the devout Catholic could worship.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/75682/original/image-20150323-17688-wk9oeo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/75682/original/image-20150323-17688-wk9oeo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75682/original/image-20150323-17688-wk9oeo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75682/original/image-20150323-17688-wk9oeo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75682/original/image-20150323-17688-wk9oeo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75682/original/image-20150323-17688-wk9oeo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75682/original/image-20150323-17688-wk9oeo.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption"></span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Haydn Society.</span></span>
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<p>Although he was making his first visit to London, his music had dominated concert life in the city for nearly ten years, an astonishing achievement when one remembers that public popularity of composers at the time still tended to be dependent on their physical presence. </p>
<p>Dubbing him the “<a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=P7DTNCEPZhkC&pg=PT31&lpg=PT31&dq=haydn+%22shakespeare+of+music%22&source=bl&ots=MrllgjaD7m&sig=tVvrixoCsX2tECGN45VouvG1Pos&hl=en&sa=X&ei=O-gPVYn7IYOL7Aaeq4HAAg&ved=0CD8Q6AEwBw#v=onepage&q=haydn%20%22shakespeare%20of%20music%22&f=false">Shakespeare of music</a>” the English press had already paid him the ultimate compliment. Repeated attempts to get the composer to visit London finally paid off in 1791. It could have been an anticlimax, but Haydn and his music became central to London’s busy musical life, so much so that a second visit followed in 1794-95.</p>
<h2>Changing history</h2>
<p>The music that Haydn composed in, and for, London included an opera, 12 symphonies, six quartets, piano music of all kinds, songs, settings of Scottish folksongs and even an arrangement of God Save the King (now lost). The London symphonies, in particular, cemented a fundamental shift in musical history, from opera being regarded as the ultimate creative challenge for any composer to instrumental music being its equal, if not in certain respects its superior.</p>
<p>Beethoven, who was Haydn’s pupil between the two visits and who was to have accompanied him for the second, was one composer who responded to this seismic shift. One of the tantalising “what-ifs” of Western musical history is to ponder whether Beethoven’s symphonies would have emerged in the way they did if Haydn had not composed his London symphonies. If the answer is probably not, then the whole history of western art music in the 19th century would have been very different.</p>
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<p>As well as musical history, Haydn’s presence in London in the 1790s had wider cultural and political resonances. His visits coincided with the beginnings of the <a href="http://ieg-ego.eu/en/threads/alliances-and-wars/war-as-an-agent-of-transfer/frederick-c-schneid-the-french-revolutionary-and-napoleonic-wars">French Revolutionary Wars</a>. From 1792 onwards, Austria and Britain were frequent coalition partners in the fight against France, and Haydn, the newly enthusiastic Anglophile and a Habsburg loyalist of the most traditional kind, came to embody that relationship. </p>
<p>He visited the dockyards in Portsmouth to see the remnants of the French fleet after Britain’s fleet won the <a href="http://www.nmm.ac.uk/explore/sea-and-ships/facts/faqs/royal-navy-and-battles/what-was-the-battle-of-the-glorious-first-of-june">Glorious First of June</a> battle, composed marches for the Derbyshire Regiment, and was a revered guest of King George III and the Prince of Wales. Back in Vienna he composed the erstwhile Austrian national anthem <em><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06643umEJZg">Gott erhalte Franz den Kaiser</a></em>, clearly modelled on God save the King. </p>
<p>He wrote a cantata for Emma Hamilton to sing that celebrated Nelson’s stunning victory at the <a href="http://www.britishbattles.com/waterloo/battle-nile.htm">Battle of the Nile</a> and, most enduringly, composed a bilingual oratorio, <a href="http://www.choirs.org.uk/prognotes/Creation.htm">The Creation</a>, that reflected the inherited musical, literary and religious traditions of Austria and Britain.</p>
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<p>At the end of the 18th century Haydn was unquestionably the greatest living composer – and London had played a determining role in that elevation. A blue plaque was long overdue.</p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/75667/original/image-20150323-17678-9t1gg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/75667/original/image-20150323-17678-9t1gg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=814&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75667/original/image-20150323-17678-9t1gg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=814&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75667/original/image-20150323-17678-9t1gg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=814&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75667/original/image-20150323-17678-9t1gg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1023&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75667/original/image-20150323-17678-9t1gg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1023&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/75667/original/image-20150323-17678-9t1gg1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1023&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">George IV commissioned this portrait of Haydn during his visit to London.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Franz_Joseph_Haydn_1732-1809_by_John_Hoppner_1791.jpg">Royal Collection</a></span>
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<p>Would Haydn have approved? As a person, he was a paradox: a modest, dutiful man who nevertheless liked recognition. He valued his Oxford honorary doctorate, sat for several portraits while he was in London and kept a box of press cuttings from the two visits. A discrete blue plaque for the Shakespeare of music could not be more appropriate.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/38941/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Wyn Jones does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Joseph Haydn’s visits to London changed the course of music history.David Wyn Jones, Professor of Music, Cardiff UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.