Archive for the 'Whale' category

A scientific study coming from Iceland suggest that in the recent years the minke whale population suddenly dropped from 45000 in 2001 to less than 15000 last year. This is a enormous change that is not yet explained for a small whale that was more or less protected by its smaller size (big whales bring bigger profits).

Source: Science Blogs.

This is the question or the hope that we can have after the opening of a legal investigation in Japan. A public prosecutor announced on last 19th of May that he decided to explore the observed operations of sale of whale meat to restaurants.

Greenpeace actively participates and there are many people hoping this to be the first step toward a true prohibition of Japanese whaling (even for “scientific” reasons).

Source: NewScientist.

See them all at http://www.naturesbestphotography.com/

Jürgen Freund
OCEANS
Dwarf Minke Whale
Ribbon Reefs, Great Barrier Reef, Australia

Up to recently, scientists did not really know how whales could eat the enormous amounts of krill they need to feed a record-sized body. It appears that this is now understood thanks to some serendipity.

Sources: The New York Times article and the original paper of Jeremy A. Goldbogen, Nicholas D. Pyenson & Robert E. Shadwick.

We all knew that the whale was actually a terrestrial mammal gone back to the sea a few million years ago (this is most visible in the presence of vestigial leg bones that are not associated to externally apparent legs or fins), but it was a bit difficult to say exactly what the ancestor looked like. It seems that this was more a kind of small deer than big dog (as previously thought). Now, we have the missing link:

Indohyus by Carl Buell

Sources:

• Greg Laden’s blog: A Whale of a Missing Link : Indohyus
• the loom: Whales: From So Humble A Beginning…
• Futura-Science : Le premier ancêtre nageur des cétacés était-il un daim miniature ?

Did you know that whales not only sing but their songs are being decoded into talk? University of Queensland researcher Dr Rebecca Dunlop thinks she now understands a lot of what they are talking about through their thumps, whistles and clacks.

Also about whales, Stacy DeRuiter at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts started analysis of whale faeces to identify diet patterns. It is not only scientifically interesting but also a strong counter-argument to “scientific whaling” as some countries like Japan would like to name their continued whale hunting: It is no longer necessary to carve up a whale dead body to know their diet.

Photo credit: NASA JPL

Iceland ministry of fisheries, Einar K. Gudfinnsson, decided that whale hunting -who started again in 2003- had no longer any reason to be. The reasons probably lie between the international opposition to whale hunting, lack of internal Iceland market and lack of exports to Japan.

Source: Futura-Sciences.

I have recently found quite a number of interesting tidbits about whales (mostly from scienceblogs) I wanted to share here with you.

• Do whales sleep?
• Whale sharks do it deeper? Whale sharks are not whales, only sharks, but it seemed adequate enough for this category.
• Studying whale behaviour
• Pacific whale decline ‘a mystery’
• The Acoustic Properties of Whale Song

Furthermore, eskimos just killed a whale in Alaska where they found (while butchering it with a chainsaw) the head of a bomb lance proving that it had escaped another hunt narrowly about a century ago. The longevity of the animal is not exceptional (it was 130 years old, but it could have lived one century more, with some more luck). [Source: ScienceBlogs]

Last minute: After four days of difficult negotiations, the International Whale Commission, grouping 76 countries, finally extended the 1986 moratorium about whaling. It prohibits whale hunting and catching with some restricted exceptions (for human subsistance and scientific research). [Source : En bref : répit pour les baleines (Futura-Sciences)]

From the universe to the smallest elementary particles, Nikon presents a guided interactive tour of the size scales we find around us in the universe.

In the context of a campaign to protect whales from intense hunting and killing all over the world, the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society created a gigantic image representing a life-sized blue whale that you can check in details from your computer.

A good half giga-pixel of blue whale - to observe with a magnification glass.

Do not forget that the blue whale is the largest mammal on Earth today and they are really endangered.

Source: WDSC : Last chance to see a life size blue whale!