The NOAA reports that the whales often occur in groups of over 1,000 animals and are often found on the edge of, or behind, schools of Fraser’s dolphins.

NOAA reports that population estimates are around 2,950 in Hawaii and that the species is primarily found in deep waters where they feed on squid, fish and crustaceans.

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https://mauinow.com/2016/08/22/rare-look-at-melon-headed-whales-off-maui/

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Sperm whales normally subsist on a diet comprised mostly of squid, shrimp, crab, and fish. These ones, however, had accidentally eaten a surprising amount of exceedingly strange stuff: a plastic car part, bucket parts, and perhaps the strangest of all, a fishing net that was almost 50 feet long.
Read More… 13 Sperm Whales Found Dead with Stomachs Full of Plastic Trash

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Desperate Whale Gets Needed Help From Divers

So when this diver helped a distressed humpback whale who was in a bad situation, he received the most unexpected and wonderful expression of gratitude!

Check out this short video on the Desperate Whale Gets Needed Help From Divers:
https://www.weloveallanimals.com/whales-needs-help-and-shows-divers-appreciation/

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How Do Barnacles Attach to Whales?

How Do Barnacles Attach to Whales?
It’s hard out there for a symbiotic barnacle, but somehow they find a way...

Barnacles Attach to Whales
Barnacles regularly colonize the skin of filter-feeding whales, and they often do so in huge numbers — one humpback whale, for instance, can host almost 1,000 pounds of barnacles. (That may sound burdensome, but relative to a humpback’s nearly 80,000-pound body, it’s about as much extra weight as summer clothing on a human being.)
Whale-bound barnacles aren’t just regular barnacles with wanderlust; they’re different species, most of them unique to the brand of whale they piggyback on.
For a hungry barnacle, the rim of a baleen whale’s nostril isn’t a terrible place to be. When the whale swims through a cloud of plankton for a meal, the barnacle — which also feeds on the tiny, floating organisms — gets free table service. All it has to do is extend its feathery, filtering arm and wait.
So how does a barnacle get onto a whale in the first place? Like other stationary marine invertebrates, barnacles begin their lives as larvae — tiny, shell-less swimmers that find a place to settle and develop into the sturdy barnacles we know. Easy enough when all you want to stick to is an immobile rock, but a whale?

How Do Barnacles Attach to Whales? The uniqueness of whale barnacle species means that whaling and whale habitat loss put not only the whales at risk, but also their hitchhiking Barnacle companions

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Barnacles Attach to Whales

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Mystery absence of humpback whales in Hawaii

More than 10,000 humpback whales make the winter journey from Alaska to the warm waters off Hawaii, traveling in groups of three or four, to mate and give birth among larger pods. The season for humpbacks usually runs from November through May, as whales swim along the archipelago. The first whale of the season was spotted on 29 September by a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration vessel.

Humpback whales have been slow to return to Hawaii as December usually marks the start of the season, experts say. “This isn’t a concern, but it’s of interest. One theory was that something like this happened as whales increased. It’s a product of their success,” said Ed Lyman, a Maui-based marine biologist and response coordinator for the sanctuary. “What I’m seeing out there right now I would have expected a month ago,” said Lyman, who was surprised by how few of the animals he saw while responding to a call about a distressed calf on Christmas Eve. “We’ve just seen a handful of whales.” It will be a while before officials have hard numbers because the annual whale counts don’t take place until the last Saturday of January, February and March, according to former sanctuary co-manager Jeff Walters. “They don’t necessarily show up in the same place at the same time every year,” Walters said. The plankton-eating animals are protected as an endangered species, and federal law prohibits approaching within 100 yards of them by boat. Fewer than 10% of humpbacks’ original population remains, according to the California-based Marine Mammal Center.

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Mystery absence of humpback whales

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“Whale Vomit” from sperm whale is a faecal-smelling commodity used in perfumes.

The ingredient, Ambergris (also called “Whale Vomit’) is a wax-like soft substance that originates as a secretion in the intestines of the sperm whale, often found floating in tropical seas and used in perfume manufacture.

Ambergris is used for making high-end perfumes costing up to thousands of dollars. The word ‘ambergris’ comes from the Arabic word ‘anbar’. It initially produces a faecal odour, but when aged, its odour becomes sweet and earthy.

Amouage, one of international luxury perfume brands from Oman, uses ambergris to make its perfumes, which are some of the most expensive in the world.

The Omanis said that a trader offered them over $17,000 for it, but they refused.
Read more at… Whale Vomit Used in Expensive Perfume

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We chat about ©“Whales are the Canaries of the Ocean” and Interview Photographer Glenn J. Barr about his way photographing whales underwater.

Swimming within arms length of whale Glenn J. Barr understands how to interact.

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Glenn J. Barr understands how to interact with whales

Glenn J. Barr understands how to swim with whales

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