Common minke whales have been heavily hunted and remain a target of commercial whalers.

In recent times, there have been growing numbers of unexplained minke whale mortalities, including mass strandings. As a relatively small whale, they are also vulnerable to industrial fishing.

University of Sydney student Oscar Mower has created an AI tool that can detect the call of the minke whale and hopes the tool will help create marine protection zones that are off-limits to whaling and fishing trawlers.

To train the model, he drew on thousands of hours of whale song recorded by hydrophones that span Arctic, Asian and US waters.

Oscar joined 2SER Breakfast to discuss how his research could help a species under threat.

Photo credit: Sea Shepherd Australia