From ScienceNOW: Sperm whales adopt deformed dolphin. Sperm whales are fierce squid hunters, but they also have a softer side. In a serendipitous sighting in the North Atlantic, researchers have discovered a group of the cetaceans that seem to have taken in an adult bottlenose dolphin with a spinal malformation, at least temporarily. It may [...]
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Would whales try to speak to you, if they could? Would they mimic your speech, if they could? Well, maybe. From ABC News (Australia): Whale mimicking humans ‘trying to make contact’. Marine biologists say a beluga whale which was recorded making human-like noises in a US aquarium may have been trying to communicate with its [...]
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From the Tyee: Killer whale ‘grannies’ coddle their baby boys well into adulthood. Like some of their human counterparts, killer whale mothers continue to dote on their sons well into adulthood, says a new study based on two pods of resident killer whales off the coast of British Columbia. That coddling appears to help the [...]
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We’ve mentioned Tucker, the whale-poop tracking dog, before. Now Tucker’s fame has spread to the New York Times: Tracking a Subtle Scent, a Dog May Help Save the Whales. A dog named Tucker with a thumping tail and a mysterious past as a stray on the streets of Seattle has become an unexpected star in [...]
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From Wired: The Hidden Power of Whale Poop. It may well be the world’s largest documented poop. It’s also an exclamation point to a line of research pursued in recent years by marine biologists who say whales are the ocean’s unappreciated gardeners, playing enormous roles in nutrient and carbon cycles. In short — or perhaps [...]
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Do you pity the whales when you sit by the sea, listening to all the zoomy boats going by? I do. The Sydney Morning Herald explains: Scientists have long known that man-made, underwater noises – from engines, sonars, weapons testing and such industrial tools as air guns used in oil and gas exploration – are [...]
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Here’s something from National Geographic: Bubble Curtains: Can They Dampen Offshore Energy Sound for Whales? In other whale-related news, the Tyee posted this the other day: Appeal court upholds ruling on protection of orca habitat A federal appeal court ruled yesterday that the Department of Fisheries and Oceans failed in its legal responsibility to protect [...]
From Scientific American: Life at the Bottom: The Prolific Afterlife of Whales. On the final dive of the trip, the scanning sonar detected a large object on the seafloor. Piercing through the abyssal darkness down at 1,240 meters, Alvin’s headlights revealed a 20-meter-long whale skeleton partly buried in sediment. On reviewing the dive videotapes, expedition [...]
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Here’s something to ponder next time you watch orcas swim past Orlebar Point. From the Smithsonian Magazine: Understanding Orca Culture. Orcas have evolved complex culture: a suite of behaviors animals learn from one another. They communicate with distinctive calls and whistles. They can live 60 years or more, and they stay in tightknit matrilineal groups [...]
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Rare grey whale sightings off the northern tip of Gabriola Island have created a stir in the past week. The sightings have been off Orlebar Point, which juts out into George Strait near Berry Point. That’s from this article on the Nanaimo Daily News site. And, as the article points out, somebody has posted a [...]
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The whales you see swimming past Berry Point might be more musically inclined than you’d guess. From sciencemag.org: Whale ‘Pop Songs’ Spread Across the Ocean. Music mania is sweeping the ocean, and all the young male humpback whales are in on the latest trend. A new study reveals that, just like humans, humpback whales in [...]
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If you’ve watched whales swim past Gabriola, you might be interested to know that some of them may be migratory astronomers. Well, who knew? Wired reports: An eight-year project that tracked humpback whale migrations by satellite shows the huge mammals follow uncannily straight paths for weeks at a time. The results suggest a single migratory [...]
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Turns out that whale-watching tours are even more damaging to whales than we’d thought. The Times Colonist reports: B.C. killer whales choking on boat exhaust. B.C.’s endangered population of southern resident killer whales face serious health issues from the exhaust emissions of pleasure and whale-watching boats, a study by a Victoria zoologist has found. [Source: [...]
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From an AFP article at Raw Story: Whale poop fights climate change. Southern Ocean sperm whales are an unexpected ally in the fight against global warming, removing the equivalent carbon emissions from 40,000 cars each year thanks to their faeces, a study found on Wednesday. The cetaceans have been previously fingered as climate culprits because [...]
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Serious photographer guy at the beach today said there are orcas breaching at Drumbeg. Have you seen them? If you’ve been watching orcas around Gabriola and have been wondering what they have for dinner, I’ve got just the thing for you. From the Times Colonist: Orcas choose to eat B.C. chinook for majority of diet. [...]
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In case you’re a marine biologist, dear reader, I have to include this essential tip from Makezine.com: how to collect whale snot using a remote control helicopter. Lately we’ve had lots of folks writing in seeking practical advice on collecting tissue samples for use in studying whaleborne disease. I had no idea there were so [...]
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