Whales

Humpback whale breaching

Hungry humpbacks get sneaky on speedy fish

Lunge-feeding humpback whales plunge into dense schools of small fish to feed on them. However, these small fish tend to be pretty fast. So, just how do huge whales sneak up on such speedy prey if they are as huge and overbearing as a ... well, whale?

This question became the focus of a study at Stanford University. Its findings was subsequently published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences journal.

It appears that the presence of boats has an impact on the social behaviour of humpback whales.

Humpback whales less sociable in presence of boats

After studying humpback whales off Queensland's Peregian Beach, researchers discovered that the whales’ ability to communicate and socialise is adversely affected by the noise and presence of boats.

In some cases, the mammals’ communication range is reduced by a factor of four.

"It appears that groups of humpback whales tend to socialise much less in the presence of vessels—in this study, mostly small fishing boats—compared to when there aren't any present," said Rebecca Dunlop from The University of Queensland's Cetacean Ecology and Acoustics Laboratory.

1856 Advertisement depicting a whale hunt.

Japan to resume whale hunt

Japans announcement that it is withdrawing from the International Whaling Commission and will resume commercial whale hunting next year, have sparked swift condemnation from other governments and conservation groups. For many years Japan has hunted whales for what it calls "scientific research" and to sell the meat, a programme widely criticised by conservationists.

A new study propose alternative mechanisms for how marine vertebrates control gas exchange in the lungs

New hypothesis into how whales avoid getting the bends

When air-breathing mammals dive, their lungs compress. The ultra-deep-diving feats of some marine mammals go beyond our current understanding of respiratory physiology and lung mechanics. But historically, researchers assumed the chest structure of marine mammals meant their lungs compressed automatically at great depths, an adaptation that prevented them from taking up excess nitrogen and getting the bends.

Observations made in 2006 and 2007 suggests that dolphins and whales may experience complex emotions once believed to be reserved for human beings such as deep grief at the death of a loved one

Do whales and dolphins grieve their dead?

A study by researchers from University of Milano-Bicocca describes observations of adults carrying dead calves and juveniles in 7 toothed cetaceans (odontocetes). The observation was based on 14 events from 3 oceans. The seven species studied were Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins, killer whales, Australian humpback dolphins, sperm whales, Risso’s dolphins, short-finned pilot whales, and spinner dolphins.

Manitoba works to save beluga population

Manitoba has released a plan to preserve the world's largest beluga population while numbers remain abundant. "We have a healthy population, but the environment is changing," said Manitoba Conservation Minister Tom Nevakshonoff. "It's a rare opportunity when you can take something that's not in distress and focus on it now to preserve that rather than doing damage control.

The frequent use by humpback whales of remote seamounts has important implications for conservation and management.

Seamounts important for humpback whales

Satellite telemetry suggests that seamounts represent an overlooked cryptic habitat for humpback whales

Seamounts probably serve multiple and important roles as breeding locations, resting areas, navigational landmarks or even supplemental feeding grounds for this species, which can be viewed as a transient component of the seamount communities.

Fin whale.

Whale may have died after eating plastic bag

Originally believed to be a minke whale, a postmortem revealed it to be a fin whale. It was the fifth fin whale to be stranded in the county for the last 25 years.

Scars on its 10.7m (36ft) body brought forward the possibility that the whale might have been struck by a ship's propeller, but this has not yet been confirmed. A spokesman from the Coastguard said that the propeller wounds were probably caused by a collision with a ship after it died.

Instead, he offered another possibility: "It probably died of contamination after eating a plastic bag or something similar."