Whales // Current

Pro Paddleboarder Spots Whale Tail

This is crazy

LadybugLady
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10 days ago
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Cartman Sings "Poker Face" (VIDEO)

If you watched last Wednesday's South Park you probably noticed Cartman's amazing... more

atomiclegion
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23 days ago
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17 comments

Epic humpback whale battle filmed

It is the greatest animal battle on the planet, and it has finally been caught on camera.

genebergly
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1 month ago
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Blue whale washes ashore in Northern California

SAN FRANCISCO – A 70-foot, female blue whale that officials believe was struck by a... more

sk8r408
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1 month ago
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Japan harpoons 59 whales off northern island

Japan said Monday it has caught 59 whales — one short of the maximum allowed by... more

jefftego
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1 month ago
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Thinking a whale is beautiful......FAIL

"thats the majestic humpback wh...BLAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHHH"

tallmansam
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1 month ago
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Meet L113, the newest Southern Resident killer whale calf

A calf has been born to L pod, bumping the Southern Resident killer whale population... more

jefftego
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1 month ago
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Feds reviewing humpback whale endangered status

The federal government is considering taking the humpback whale off the endangered... more

jefftego
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1 month ago
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Japan's new government stands by whaling, not eager for bout with Sea Shepherd

Japan's new government this week urged Australia to help thwart the Sea Shepherd... more

jefftego
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2 months ago
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Song of the Blue Whale [video]

Blue whales, Balaenoptera musculus, have complex calls that can be heard for miles. In... more

GrrlScientist
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2 months ago
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Plastic oceans

The plastic revolution started in the 50s: this material spread around the world and... more

hyperion74
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2 months ago
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Killer Whales Die WIthout King Salmon

Some killer whale populations favor king salmon so much that the whales will actually... more

mcjk
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2 months ago
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Killer Whales Die Without King Salmon

Some killer whale populations favor king salmon so much that the whales will actually die when numbers of this largest member of the salmon family drop, according to new research.

The study, published in the latest Royal Society Biology Letters, suggests that although killer whales may consume a variety of fish species and mammals, many are highly specialized hunters dependent on this single salmon species.

Lead author John Ford explained to Discovery News that "nutritional stress" probably leads to killer whale deaths because it can make the whales "susceptible to other factors leading to mortality, such as disease and parasitism," and possibly also more vulnerable to the "immuno-suppressive effects of PCBs" and other ocean pollutants.

Ford, a research scientist at Fisheries and Oceans Canada, and his colleagues used 25 years of demographic data from two populations of fish-eating killer whales in the northeastern Pacific Ocean, along with data on numbers of chum and Chinook salmon, commonly known as king salmon.

The scientists determined that from 1974 to the mid 1990's, resident killer whale populations steadily grew in number at an increase of nearly 2.6 percent per year. That pattern abruptly ended in the mid 1990's, when both analyzed populations of killer whales entered a period of prolonged decline, dropping by up to 17 percent as of 2001. By 2004, the populations began to recover and show growth again.

The killer whale population's ups and downs mirror those of king salmon for the same periods. The researchers suspect El Nino-like conditions in the early 1990's resulted in the deaths of juvenile salmon, which then brought down the entire king salmon population for the region.

In a separate study, bioacoustician Whitlow Au of the Hawaii Institute of Marine Biology, and his colleagues found that killer whales prefer king salmon to such a degree that they can identify these fish when the Chinooks are swimming alongside Coho and Sockeye salmon.

Au's team determined that even in winter months when king salmon make up just 10 to 15 percent of the salmon swimming in water, killer whales will use echolocation to reveal differences in the fishes' "swimbladder shape and volume" to pick out king salmon.

Given that the fate of some killer whales seems tied to that of king salmon, Fisheries and Oceans Canada calls for strengthening killer whale populations by ensuring adequate availability of prey.

Ford said the Canadian agency also urges "minimizing the potential effects of anthropogenic impacts, such as disturbance and noise, and identifying and protecting critical habitat."Some killer whale populations favor king salmon so much that the whales will actually... more