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San Francisco Grants Whales and Dolphins the Right to Live Freely

San Francisco Grants Whales and Dolphins the Right to Live Freely

San Francisco Grants Whales and Dolphins the Right to Live Freely

San Francisco Grants Whales and Dolphins the Right to Live Freely


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The Cetacean Free and Safe Passage resolution, which was passed by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, supports the ???free and safe passage of whales and dolphins in San Francisco???s coastal waters, San Francisco Bay, and its estuaries.???

More importantly, it states that whales and dolphins have the rights ???to be free of captivity, and to remain unrestricted in their natural environment.???

The resolution cites a number of factors to support their right to freedom that range from scientific studies showing whales and dolphins to be highly intelligent, emotional and social animals who live in family groups for their entire lives to the high levels of psychological stress and mortality among captive marine mammals. It also notes that California???s coastal waters host a number of species of whales, dolphins and porpoises.

As people continue to recognize and accept the complexities of whales and dolphins and the problems captivity causes, San Francisco has set the bar a little higher by passing the first resolution of its kind legally recognizing their right to live free in the wild.

Needless to say supporters are thrilled that the city took this step for cetaceans and hope that other places will follow San Francisco???s lead.

Whales and Dolphins the Right to Live Freely


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Some Insight into How Whales Sleep

Some Insight into How Whales Sleep

Seeing sperm whales sleeping is pretty darn cool

Some insight into how whales sleep


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Seeing sperm whales sleeping is pretty darn cool
Until a few years back, the common thought was sperm whales and other cetaceans only allowed one side of their brain to rest at a time. This ???sleeping with one eye open??? approach was challenged when this team of researchers came upon a pod sperm whales bobbing up in the water off the coast of Chile. None of the whales seemed to notice the team???s boat until one was accidentally bumped then it awoke and fled (along with the rest of the pod).
The photo was shot by photographer Magnus Lundgren for Wild Wonders of Europe from a few years ago, but sheds some insight into how whales sleep.

The team???s findings suggest sperm whales are different from other cetaceans, and actually enter short, but periodic, bouts of sleep throughout the day.

We have all been pretty tired at times and may have caught ourselves nodding off while waiting in line for an early flight, on the subway to work or elsewhere, but seeing how sperm whales sleep is pretty darn cool. Why? Because as you can see from the image above, they sleep perpendicular in the water.

Some insight into how whales sleep


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Drone to Sample Humpback Whale Blow Hole Mucus

Drone to Sample Humpback Whale Blow Hole Mucus

Remote-controlled drone to capture whale DNA.

Drone to Sample Humpback Whale Blow Hole Mucus to measure their health


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Drones have been sent to hover metres above migrating humpback whales off south-east Queensland to help with a study into the giant mammals’ health.

Griffith University researcher Dr Jan-Olaf Meynecke used the remote-controlled aircraft to capture DNA from the blow holes of humpbacks.

He is trying to establish whether the increase in whale population is placing pressure on the species.

About 19,000 humpbacks leave Antarctica’s cold waters annually and migrate up Australia???s east coast.

But Dr Meynecke said research into the marine mammal had been limited.

In June, he launched a pilot study to examine humpback health.

Using a drone to hover above the whales, he collected mucus in a petri dish.

He said whales took a breath every three to four minutes, so timing was critical.

“We wait for their second breath and so they come up for a second time and that’s when I usually try to get the whale blow,” he said.

An estimated 40,000 humpbacks once migrated to Queensland’s warm waters but commercial hunting reduced the population to fewer than 500.

Whaling ended in the early 1960s and since then the population has steadily grown to almost 20,000.

Dr Meynecke said he suspected the increased numbers coupled with temperature changes and decreasing krill stocks were affecting the humpbacks’ immune system.

Drone to Sample Humpback Whale Blow Hole Mucus to measure their health


Play the very TV News video about the project Humpback Whale Blow Hole Mucus and Read More…

Untangling Both a Whale and Why Marine Life Get Mixed up With Our Trash

Untangling Both a Whale and Why Marine Life Get Mixed up With Our Trash

A humpback whale entangled in fishing gear swims near the ocean???s surface in 2005. (NOAA/Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary)


Untangling Both a Whale and Why Marine Life Get Mixed up With Our Trash

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Sadly, a humpback whale swimming in the blue waters off of Maui, Hawaii, got first-hand experience with this issue in February 2014.

Luckily, trained responders from the Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary were able to remove the long tangle of fishing rope wrapped around the whale???s head, mouth, and right pectoral fin.
According to NOAA’s National Marine Sanctuaries:

“A long pole with a specially designed hook knife was used by trained and permitted personnel to cut through the entanglement.

Hundreds of feet of small gauge line were collected after the successful disentanglement. The entanglement was considered life threatening and the whale is confirmed to be totally free of gear.”
Check out these short videos taken by the response team for a glimpse of what it???s like trying to free one of these massive marine mammals from this debris:

Humpback Whale Cut Free from Marine Debris – Maui 02.19.14 (Part 1)

Humpback Whale Cut Free from Marine Debris – Maui 02.19.14 (Part 2)

Humpback Whale Cut Free from Marine Debris – Maui 02.19.14 (Part 3)


While this whale was fortunate enough to have some help escaping, the issue of wildlife getting tangled in marine debris is neither new nor going away. Recently, the NOAA Marine Debris Program and National Centers for Coastal Ocean Science reviewed scientific reports of ocean life entangled by marine debris in the United States. You can read the full NOAA report [PDF].
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Untangling Both a Whale and Why Marine Life Get Mixed up With Our Trash

Four Story 10-31-2014 Playlist

Audio Podcasts of Whale News 10-31-2014

Audio Podcasts of Whale News 10-31-2014

Four Story 10-21-2014 Playlist

Four Column 10-21-2014 Playlist

Four Column 10-21-2014 Playlist


Four Column 10-21-2014 Playlist

Whale carcass support succession marine biological communities

Whale carcass support succession marine biological communities

Different stages in the decomposition of a whale carcass support a succession of marine biological communities.

Decomposition of a whale carcass support succession marine biological communities

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The ocean’s depths are supplied by nutrients falling down from the surface waters said NOAA. The agency reports that when whales die and sink, the whale carcasses, or whale falls, provide a sudden, concentrated food source and a bonanza for organisms in the deep sea.

Different stages in the decomposition of a whale carcass support a succession of marine biological communities. Scavengers consume the soft tissue in a matter of months and organic fragments enrich nearby sediments for over a year.

The whale skeleton itself can support rich communities for years to decades, both as a hard surface for invertebrate colonization and as a source of sulfides from the decay of organic compounds of whale bones.

Microbes live off of the energy released from these chemical reactions and form the basis of ecosystems for as long as the food source lasts.

At deep-sea levels, this forms a new food web and provides energy to support single- and multi-cell organisms and sponges, thus adding to the ocean’s food chain.

If a whale falls in the ocean and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?

While there is no answer to that version of the age-old philosophical question, marine biologists do know that marine organisms are there to eat it when it lands on the bottom. It???s a called a whale fall.

https://www.app.com/story/sports/outdoors/fishing/hook-line-and-sinker/2014/10/16/ocean-facts-careful-whales-falling/17375115/

New Born Humpback Whale Calf Video is Amazing

New-Born-Humpback-Whale-Calf-Video-is-Amazing

The mother was pushing her Calf out of the water to take it’s first breaths.


Encountering a New Born Humpback Whale Calf

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During a day of whale watching around Big Sand Cay. We encountered a pair of Humpbacks, Mother and Calf. The mother was pushing her Calf out of the water to take it’s first breaths. We observed at the surface from our boat for several minutes before getting in the water to have a closer look. This 60s clip is what we saw in the water, the magical encounter as the pair swam by us.
Published on Oct 19, 2014

Endangered Beluga Whales versus $11 Billion

Endangered Beluga Whales versus $11Billion

Concerns over beluga whales delay Energy East pipeline project


Concerns over endangered Beluga whales delay Energy East pipeline project

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A possible threat to the endangered beluga whales in the St. Lawrence River and TransCanada Corp.???s $11-billion Energy East pipeline project has run into another stumbling block in Quebec as public opposition mounts.

The Calgary-based pipeline company is still awaiting provincial government permission to continue its exploratory and drilling work on a planned export terminal at Cacouna, a key calving site for the belugas, despite the lifting of a temporary court injunction on Oct. 15.

TransCanada had a work timetable it wanted to complete before the ice forms on the river.

The company???s goal was to return to work after it submitted to Quebec???s environment ministry a revised plan for noise abatement and other measures to protect the belugas, but it is still waiting for the green light after having done so last Wednesday.

A Quebec Superior Court judge slapped the injunction on TransCanada last month after several Quebec-based environmental groups successfully argued that the ministry had granted it a certificate without properly considering the impact on the endangered belugas that congregate in the area to nurse their newborn.

Oct. 15 is viewed as the end of the mother belugas??? calving period. Ministry officials were not available to comment Sunday but the company said it had proactively increased the exclusion zone for marine mammals before receiving the notice of non-compliance and it had obtained all proper procedures in obtaining authorization .

The work permit expires at the end of November.

The Energy East project involves the conversion of a natural-gas pipeline, as well as construction of a new line through Quebec and New Brunswick, to carry 1.1 million barrels a day of Western Canadian crude to refineries and export facilities in the two provinces.

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and other politicians have called the project a nation-builder. In a show of support for Energy East, New Brunswick Premier Brian Gallant is scheduled to meet with business and political leaders in Alberta beginning Monday and also tour a TransCanada operations centre as well as visit the oil sands.

Meanwhile, Quebec environmental groups said that about 38,000 signatures have so far been collected on a petition urging Quebec Premier Philippe Couillard to halt the Cacouna drilling permanently.

The Cacouna project is ???in the heart of the belugas??? vital habitat,??? said Michel B??langer, president of Nature Qu??bec.

???This [project] could be fatal for them,??? he said, pointing out that the belugas??? numbers have dwindled to about 880 today from about 10,000 at the beginning of the 20th century.

???People are very concerned.???

TransCanada should not be allowed to do any work on East Energy in the province, said Mr. B??langer, until it has undergone a full and rigorous review by the Bureau d???audiences publiques sur l???environnement, Quebec???s environment regulation agency.

TransCanada is expected to file for federal regulatory approval later this month.
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/industry-news/energy-and-resources/concerns-over-beluga-whales-delay-energy-east-project/article21158740/

Thousands of gray whales begin annual southern migration

Thousands of gray whales begin annual southern migration

Thousands of gray whales begin annual southern migration


Thousands of gray whales begin annual southern migration to Mexico from the Arctic.

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Thousands of gray whales begin annual southern migration to Mexico from their feeding grounds in the Arctic, where near-record low ice coverage last spring allowed pregnant females to get early access to food.

In the coming weeks, more than 20,000 gray whales will begin their annual two-month, 5,000-mile journey south ??? from the Arctic Circle, past San Diego, to warm lagoons off Baja California.

The pod has been feeding over the past four months in the Chukchi Sea and northern Bering Sea.

Gray whales travel 10,000 to 14,000 miles round trip every year — from feeding grounds near the Arctic to breeding lagoons in Baja California.
Credit: Washington State Dept. of Ecology
Above: Gray whales travel10,000 to 14,000 miles roundtrip every year — from feeding grounds near the Arctic to breeding lagoons in Baja California.
Near-record low ice coverage when they returned to the North Pacific last spring allowed pregnant females to get early access to vital feeding areas, increasing their chance for a full-term pregnancy, said Wayne Perryman, fisheries biologist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Southwest Fisheries Science Center in La Jolla.

Pregnant females fast during the four-month round-trip migration, so it???s important for them to fatten up quickly upon their return in May, Perryman said.

Now that the whales have gained enough blubber, expectant females will lead the pod south to their birthing waters, he said.
https://www.kpbs.org/news/2014/oct/13/fattened-gray-whales-low-ice-arctic-set-journey-so/

Narwhal tusk main purpose

Narwhal tusk main purpose

What the narwhal’s tusk is really for?


Narwhal tusk main purpose is to attract females and display male status

There are a surprising number of researchers working on various tusk theories. And it may be that more than one is true, says Ms Kelley. ???I don???t want to say there is absolutely no other function that the tusk can serve because you are never really sure.??? But the consensus is growing that Darwin was right: the male narwhal grows his spectacular tusk mainly to attract members of the opposite sex.

Yet even after it was firmly established that the tusk was the left-front tooth of the narwhal, an Arctic whale unappealingly named the “corpse whale” by Scandinavians because of its mottled colouring (nar means corpse and hvalr means whale in Old Norse), conjecture continued as to why a whale would have developed such an appendage. What is Narwhal tusk main purpose?

Charles Darwin thought it had something to do with sexual selection, because with rare exceptions it is only found in males. Others have suggested that it could be used as a weapon, a tool to stir the ocean floor in search of food, a means of propping the whale???s head on an ice floe to sleep, or as a spear to catch fish???although how the narwhal would get its prey off its tusk and into its mouth remained a riddle. Research by a dentist from Harvard School of Dental Medicine published earlier this year said the massive tooth was a sensor for changes in water salinity. Most of these theories founder on the crucial point that if the tusk were necessary for the whale???s survival, females would have them too.

So the Narwhal tusk main purpose seems to be related to female attraction on many levels.
What the narwhal’s tusk is really for? Inuit say males with the biggest tusks lead whale pods and that tusking displays, when two males rub their tusks together, appear more playful than aggressive. As for those broken tips, which some researchers took as evidence of fighting, they are probably caused by narwhals hitting the bottom in panicked flight from killer whales or human hunters, according to Inuit. More… https://www.economist.com/blogs/economist-explains/2014/10/economist-explains-3#sthash.5ESCsv9W.dpuf