tagged w/ Sperm Whales
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Latest Complete News Updates Snooki things the water in the ocean is salty because of whale sperm. “Everybody google it.” This drama between Mr. Jeff and Snooki is lameass. Ok, so maybe not, but Miss. Snooki told us all to Google it and so we are googling it.Latest Complete News Updates Snooki things the water in the ocean is salty because of... more
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Whales suffering from 'dramatic' sunburn
By Matthew Knight for CNN
November 10, 2010 2:23 p.m. EST
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
* Whales in Gulf of California suffering from sunburn, according to new report
* Paler-skinned blue whale has experienced the most blisters and damage
* Scientists think higher levels of ultraviolet radiation due to ozone depletion could be to blame
London, England (CNN) -- Whales in Mexico's Gulf of California are showing worsening signs of sunburn according to new report published Wednesday.
Photos and skin samples gathered by scientists from the UK's Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and Mexico's Interdisciplinary Marine Science Center revealed blisters and changes in skin pigmentation in blue whales, fin whales and sperm whales.
The most badly-affected species was the blue whale -- which has paler skin -- and whales which spend most time on the surface exposing their skin to the sun.
"Whales need to come to the surface to breathe air, to socialize and to feed their young, meaning that they are frequently exposed to the full force of the sun," lead author Laura Martinez-Levasseur said in a statement.
Martinez-Levasseur says the rises in skin damage in the blue whale were "a matter of concern," but it isn't clear yet why they were happening.
....."A likely candidate is rising UVR (ultra-violet radiation) as a result of either ozone depletion or a change in the level of cloud cover
--Laura Martinez-Levasseur, Zoological Society of London, UK
Ultra-violet levels in the Gulf of California generally remain high or very high on the UV index (the international standard measurement of the strength of the ultraviolet radiation) throughout the year.
Edel O'Toole, professor of molecular dermatology at Queen Mary, University of London and co-author said the changes in the whales' skin were "dramatic" and "significant."
"In the cells of the epidermis there were blisters which we could observe under the microscope, as well as the ones you can see on the skin. We also observed sunburn like you would see in humans," O'Toole told CNN.
The damage appears to be getting worse, but there is no evidence yet that whales are developing more skin cancers, O'Toole says.
Now they have established that exposure to strong sun is damaging to whales' skin, scientists will now look at the knock-on effects and monitor if the whales are able to respond to increasing radiation, and enhance their natural sun protection mechanisms.
The research, which was conducted between 2007 and 2009, appears online in the journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.Whales suffering from 'dramatic' sunburn
By Matthew Knight for CNN... more
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"Brown pelicans and other seabirds often dive into the oil because the slick makes the water look calmer. If they are coated in oil, they will be unable to regulate their temperatures, leading to hyperthermia.
Plankton, tiny immobile organisms at the base of the food chain, can be killed by chemically dispersed oil.
All four species of sea turtles in the gulf are threatened or endangered. Some have already washed up ashore, and with numbers already low, it would be harder to rebuild the population.
Dolphins, which often follow boats to play, have been following response crews, getting near the slicks.
Shrimp and other shellfish are more vulnerable to oil and chemical dispersants because they are stationary, while some adult fin fish populations may be mobile.
Fish larvae are most at risk. Bluefin tuna, now spawning near the spill, are of particular concern. The Gulf of Mexico is one of only two nurseries in the world for bluefin tuna.
Sperm whales, which spend most of their time diving for prey, may come up in the slick as they reach the surface to breathe."
http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/04/28/us/20100428-spill-map.html"Brown pelicans and other seabirds often dive into the oil because the slick... more
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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 they breathe out carbon dioxide (CO2), the commonest greenhouse gas.
But this is only a part of the picture, according to the paper, published in the British journal Proceedings of the Royal Society B.
In a heroic calculation, Australian biologists estimated that the estimated 12,000 sperm whales in the Southern Ocean each defecate around 50 tonnes of iron into the sea every year after digesting the fish and squid they hunt.
The iron is a terrific food for phytoplankton -- marine plants that live near the ocean surface and which suck up CO2 from the atmosphere through photosynthesis.
READ MORE AT LINKSouthern Ocean sperm whales are an unexpected ally in the fight against global... more
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GETTY IMAGES
A worker uses a shovel to remove an oil glob from the beach Thursday, July 1, in Biloxi, Mississippi.GETTY IMAGES
A worker uses a shovel to remove an oil glob from the beach Thursday,... more
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This was the most emotionally disturbing video I have ever done!
A flight over the BP Slick Source where I saw at least 100 Dolphins in the oil, some dying. I also photographed a Sperm Whale covered in oil all around it's blow hole.
Please spread this around the world. Send me any links to places it gets posted so I can follow.
I want to piss off the world. Who will answer for these gentle creatures?This was the most emotionally disturbing video I have ever done!
A flight over the BP Slick Source where I saw at least 100 Dolphins in the oil, some dying. I also photographed a Sperm Whale covered in oil all around it's blow hole.
Please spread this around the world. Send me any links to places it gets posted so I can follow.
I want to piss off the world. Who will answer for these gentle creatures?This was the most emotionally disturbing video I have ever done!
A flight over the BP... more
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From the Associated Press: Sperm whales feeding even in the most remote reaches of Earth's oceans have built up stunningly high levels of toxic and heavy metals, according to American scientists who say the findings spell danger not only for marine life but for the millions of humans who depend on seafood.From the Associated Press: Sperm whales feeding even in the most remote reaches of... more
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On Tuesday, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ship spotted the 25-foot animal due south of the Deepwater Horizon site. The water the whale was floating in was not oiled. The fate of the whales, which have frequently been spotted swimming in the oil by planes overhead, has been of intense concern to wildlife biologists.
Blair Mase, the Southeast marine mammal stranding coordinator for the oceanic agency, said that scientists were “very concerned” that oil was the cause of the whale’s death, but that the whale’s body was so decomposed and scavenged by sharks that it would be impossible to say for certain.
There are an estimated 1,700 sperm whales that live in gulf waters and they are known to congregate particularly at the mouth of the Mississippi River, a rich feeding ground. Unlike other whales, which travel long distances, these live full-time in the Gulf and do not usually mingle with sperm whale pods in the neighboring Caribbean and Sargasso Sea. Ms. Mase said that the dead whale was almost certainly a gulf whale.
Scientists will try to determine whether the whale had been swimming through oil by using a method known as hindcasting, which looks at how bloated an animal’s body is to calculate how long it has been dead, then retraces patterns in water currents to tell where the body might have drifted from. The whale’s condition suggests it has been dead for at least several days, Ms. Mase said.
Scientists are also taking skin samples from the whale, which will be tested for petroleum. The results of those tests, as well as tests on its skin and blubber to determine its gender, may take weeks to process, the oceanic agency said. Government workers are also trying to rule out other possible causes of death, like a ship strike or net entanglement.
“It is a relatively rare occurrence,” said Ms. Mase, who added that there have been only five or six whale deaths in the gulf in five years, “so we are studying this very carefully.” NOAA sent a research ship to the area around the Deepwater Horizon a few days ago specifically to learn whether the oil spill was changing whales’ behavior and if so, in what ways.
Because whales are large and very mobile, they are relatively less vulnerable to oil spills than other sea life. However, the whales are classified as endangered and the crude oil is toxic to them. Moreover, they prefer to dive and fish right off the continental shelf, where the Deepwater Horizon wellhead is located, and their sensitivity to the large plumes of oil droplets and the enormous amount of dispersants being used to combat this disaster is unknown.
Hal Whitehead, a biologist who studies at Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, said sperm whales are highly social animals that live in matriarchal groups like elephants. They communicate through noises that sound like clicks, which researchers refer to as a dialect. They have also shown behaviors that resemble mourning. In one case, Dr. Whitehead said, when a young sperm whale died, its mother carried its carcass around in her mouth.
Sperm whales live anywhere from 60 to 100 years, scientists estimate. But they reproduce on average only every five years, which is why even a few whale deaths can be significant, Dr. Whitehead said.
Check out this blog about the death of sperm whales in the Gulf -- "Tony and the Whale," written by a Greenpeace Oceans Campaigner, John Hocevar:
http://members.greenpeace.org/blog/greenpeaceusa_blog/2010/06/21/tony-and-the-whale
"The whale's death puts the population of sperm whales that live in the Gulf at risk of extinction. US government scientists have estimated that the loss of as few as three adult whales due to the spill might be enough to cause them to die out in the Gulf of Mexico. Sperm whales produce only one calf every five years. Their slow rate of maturity and their low birth rate make them particularly vulnerable to things like oil spills - or commercial whaling, which nearly wiped out the entire species before the moratorium took effect in 1986."
(More at link)On Tuesday, a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration ship spotted the 25-foot... more
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Japan launched a summer whaling mission Wednesday, with the target of killing 260 of the giant sea mammals in the Northwest Pacific waters despite legal action by Australia.
Three harpoon and two research ships set sail from three separate ports in Japan with more than 200 crew to hunt whales in the Pacific waters, said the Institute of Cetacean Research, which sends the state-backed whaling fleet.
In the latest whaling trip, the fleet led by the Nisshin Maru mother ship plans to catch 100 minke whales, 100 sei whales, 50 Bryde's whales and 10 sperm whales before returning in late August, the operator said.
The expedition comes after Australia launched legal action with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in an effort to stop Japan killing hundreds of whales a year in the name of science.
The International Whaling Commission, seeking to end decades of bitter conflict between its pro- and anti-whaling members, is set to begin talks in two weeks in Morocco.Japan launched a summer whaling mission Wednesday, with the target of killing 260 of... more
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By: Sorcha Faal, and as reported to her Western Subscribers
A dire report prepared for President Medvedev by Russia’s Ministry of Natural Resources is warning today that the British Petroleum (BP) oil and gas leak in the Gulf of Mexico is about to become the worst environmental catastrophe in all of human history threatening the entire eastern half of the North American continent with “total destruction”.
Russian scientists are basing their apocalyptic destruction assessment due to BP’s use of millions of gallons of the chemical dispersal agent known as Corexit 9500 which is being pumped directly into the leak of this wellhead over a mile under the Gulf of Mexico waters and designed, this report says, to keep hidden from the American public the full, and tragic, extent of this leak that is now estimated to be over 2.9 million gallons a day.
The dispersal agent Corexit 9500 is a solvent originally developed by Exxon and now manufactured by the Nalco Holding Company of Naperville, Illinois that is four times more toxic than oil (oil is toxic at 11 ppm (parts per million), Corexit 9500 at only 2.61ppm). In a report written by Anita George-Ares and James R. Clark for Exxon Biomedical Sciences, Inc. titled “Acute Aquatic Toxicity of Three Corexit Products: An Overview” Corexit 9500 was found to be one of the most toxic dispersal agents ever developed. Even worse, according to this report, with higher water temperatures, like those now occurring in the Gulf of Mexico, its toxicity grows.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in discovering BP’s use of this dangerous dispersal agent ordered BP to stop using it, but BP refused stating that their only alternative to Corexit 9500 was an even more dangerous dispersal agent known as Sea Brat 4.
The main differences between Corexit 9500 and Sea Brat 4 lie in how long these dangerous chemicals take to degrade into their constituent organic compounds, which for Corexit 9500 is 28 days. Sea Brat 4, on the other hand, degrades into an organic chemical called Nonylphenol that is toxic to aquatic life and can persist in the environment for years.
A greater danger involving Corexit 9500, and as outlined by Russian scientists in this report, is that with its 2.61ppm toxicity level, and when combined with the heating Gulf of Mexico waters, its molecules will be able to “phase transition” from their present liquid to a gaseous state allowing them to be absorbed into clouds and allowing their release as “toxic rain” upon all of Eastern North America.
Even worse, should a Katrina like tropical hurricane form in the Gulf of Mexico while tens of millions of gallons of Corexit 9500 are sitting on, or near, its surface the resulting “toxic rain” falling upon the North American continent could “theoretically” destroy all microbial life to any depth it reaches resulting in an “unimaginable environmental catastrophe” destroying all life forms from the “bottom of the evolutionary chart to the top”.
Note: For molecules of a liquid to evaporate, they must be located near the surface, be moving in the proper direction, and have sufficient kinetic energy to overcome liquid-phase intermolecular forces. Only a small proportion of the molecules meet these criteria, so the rate of evaporation is limited. Since the kinetic energy of a molecule is proportional to its temperature, evaporation proceeds more quickly at higher temperatures.
As over 50 miles of the US State of Louisiana’s coastline has already been destroyed by this spill, American scientists are warning that the damage may be impossible to repair, and as we can read as reported by the Associated Press News Service:
“The gooey oil washing into the maze of marshes along the Gulf Coast could prove impossible to remove, leaving a toxic stew lethal to fish and wildlife, government officials and independent scientists said. Officials are considering some drastic and risky solutions: They could set the wetlands on fire or flood areas in hopes of floating out the oil. They warn an aggressive cleanup could ruin the marshes and do more harm than good.”
And to understand the full import of this catastrophe it must be remembered that this disaster is occurring in what is described as the “biologically richest waters in America” with the greatest amount of oil and toxic Corexit 9500 set to come ashore in the coming days and weeks to destroy it completely for decades to come.
Reports are also coming from the United States that their government is secretly preparing to evacuate tens-of-millions of their citizens from their Gulf of Mexico States should the most dire of these scientific warnings start to come true.
To the greatest lesson to be learned by these Americans is that their government-oil industry cabal has been just as destructive to them as their government-banking one, both of which have done more to destroy the United States these past couple of years than any foreign enemy could dare dream was possible.
But to their greatest enemy the Americans need look no further than their nearest mirror as they are the ones who allowed these monsters to rule over them in the first place.
www.whatdoesitmean.com/index1374.htm
© May 23, 2010 EU and US all rights reserved
[Ed. Note: Western governments and their intelligence services actively campaign against the information found in these reports so as not to alarm their citizens about the many catastrophic Earth changes and events to come, a stance that the Sisters of Sorcha Faal strongly disagrees with in believing that it is every human beings right to know the truth. Due to our missions conflicts with that of those governments, the responses of their ‘agents’ against us has been a longstanding misinformation/misdirection campaign designed to discredit and which is addressed in the report “Who Is Sorcha Faal?”.]By: Sorcha Faal, and as reported to her Western Subscribers
A dire report prepared... more
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http://current.com/items/92126518_swimming-with-whales.htm
Last weekend I was sitting on the edge of a cliff in Big Sur when a whale swam by. My friend turned to me and said, "Every time I see a whale I have an irresistible urge to run to the water and jump in and swim with them." "Doesn't everyone?" I asked. Apparently not. Even for those rare souls who do have a case of deep desire, most people aren't crazy enough to actually do it. Enter Bryant Austin, the man who has dedicated himself to creating life size photographs of whales. That sounds all fine and dandy until you realize he is coming within 6 feet of a pod of wild animals that can weigh as much as two tons each.
First question: "How the heck do you do that?" Lucky for us Bryant explains the process, and told us an amazing story of a close encounter with a carnivorous sperm whale in the following video.
After the interview I asked Bryant how he became interested in capturing this unique perspective of whales; he told us a story about his first encounter with Humpback whales. He found himself dangerously close to a calf, and was admiring its agility given their close range of contact when he felt a tap on his shoulder. He explained that he assumed he was bumping into the boat since he was swimming on the surface of the ocean, but when he turned back to look, he was staring into the eye of the mother whale, who had just tapped him with her 15-foot, one-ton pectoral fin. He explained the moment of having actual eye contact with the whale, and realizing that there was a perspective and story that wasn't being told through conventional photographs of whales, and that if he wanted to share this perspective of connecting with the whale.
After spending a few days with Bryant's footage and photos of whales I would have to agree. Even as a self proclaimed lover of whales, after looking at these photos, I see the animal in a different way. The photos (his largest photo is 6 feet by 28 feet, and it took 2800 hours to complete) create a feeling of intimacy that Bryant hopes will start to change the way that future generations perceive whales.
The short documentary below, "In the Eye of the Whale" tells more of the Bryant's purpose, and explains his experiences of taking these images to the whaling nations.
Passion and Purpose
Plenty of people go out there and photograph whales, but Bryant has matched his passion with purpose. Whales are in serious danger (to satiate your inner eco geek, see the whaling information at the bottom of this post). Norway is one of the top whaling nations, a country which has a surplus of whaling meat, and has recently raised the limits. Bryant has taken his photographs to Norway to share with adults, and with hopes to influence the youth culture to shift the countries' whale consumption habits. The advocacy for these elements requires a gentle touch of, lets say, a humpback's fin. You need weight and power, and political prowess that allow whaling nations to change their ways with honor. (Norway recently responded to recent pressure by raising numbers even though they have a surplus of meat, while Japan recently requested to negotiate to lower it's "scientific" catch.
How can you engage?
Of course there are lots of ways to engage with protecting whales. Depending of your flavor of activism there is Greenpeace, there is the notorious Sea Shepperd, and then there is always Bryant Austin's work. Bryant is one of the humbler people who you will meet, and I had to drag the following information out of him re: how we can support his conservation work:
We are presently raising funds to reunite with and film the whale responsible for my first life-size composite photo , which will cost about $50,000 (think what goes into getting on boats, equipment, oxygen, and then waiting for the right moment). We are hoping to begin in April of this year. It will be the first of four individual whales we are working to reunite with and film for our upcoming feature length documentary which has a much higher budget!
So if you want to support Bryant's conservation efforts, head on over to his non-profit, Marine Mammal Conservation Through the Arts.
More information whales for the curious
The blue whales of the Antarctic are at less than 1 percent of their original abundance, despite 40 years of complete protection. Some populations of whales are recovering but some are not.
In 2003 Palumbi estimated that humpback whales could have numbered 1.5 million prior to the onset of commercial whaling in the 1800s. Humpback whales currently number in the 20,000.
Known environmental threats to whales include global warming, pollution, overfishing, ozone depletion, noise such as sonar weaponry, and ship strikes. Industrial fishing threatens the food supply of whales and also puts whales at risk of entanglement in fishing gear.
They were initially guarded by an organization with the misleading title of the International Whaling Commission, known more as a "whalers club" than a conservation organization it states it's mission as:
"Recognizing the interest of the nations of the world in safeguarding for future generations the great natural resources represented by the whale stocks.....having decided to conclude a convention to provide for the proper conservation of whale stocks and thus make possible the orderly development of the whaling industry".
Two countries, Norway and Japan, are responsible for the vast majority of whales killed annually. Norway, which objects to the moratorium on commercial whaling, is expected to kill 1,052 minke whales in 2006, the highest number in two decades. Japan has announced its intentions to kill more than 1,100 minke, fin and humpback whales, all under the guise of "scientific whaling." Both Japan and Norway have consistently resisted international opposition to their killing of whales. Moreover, Japan has methodically sought to overturn the whaling moratorium almost from the time it was first instituted, has grossly abused the provision that allows for scientific whaling, and has even gone so far as to introduce whale meat into hundreds of school-lunch programs throughout the country in an effort to encourage more of Japan's young people to cultivate a taste for whale meat, a taste that has virtually disappeared among Japanese under 60 years of age. Since 1998, Japan has systematically attempted to gain a majority of pro-whaling votes on the International Whaling Commission. Ten years ago, there were 35 nations that belonged to the IWC, with roughly two-thirds opposed to whaling. In recent years, however, Japan has sought to alter this balance by increasing the number of countries on the commission that support the commercial killing of whales. Since 1998, it is estimated that through the provision of multimillion-dollar aid packages, Japan has succeeded in bringing 19 new countries onto the commission, most of which are poor nations in west and north Africa, as well as island states in the Caribbean and the Pacific that have no tradition of whaling. Japan has issued scientific permits every year in recent years. In the current year, permits are for the JARPA II programme (850±10% Antarctic minke whales, 50 fin whales and 50 humpback whales) and the JARPN II programme (340 minke, 50 Bryde's, 100 sei and 10 sperm whales).
Related content:
Attacking the king of the ocean: The sharks that can’t fight back (video) It’s a batmobile!
It’s a creature from the deep! It’s the Sea Shepherd getting rammed by a Japanes whaling ship
We heal the planet…the planet heals us: Aqua craniosacral therapy http://current.com/items/92126518_swimming-with-whales.htm
Last weekend I was sitting... more
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