Gray whales have been hunted to extermination in the Atlantic Ocean. But you can still find some in the Pacific Ocean (and the Behring Straits). These very quiet monsters may even jump out of the water (Is it a game? Is it communication? Nobody really knows). Gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus), Baleine grise.Wrangel Island, Russia.August 2018.
Category: Whale
Belugas are not too difficult to find (much less than the elusive narwhal). But, like all whales, they are often hard to catch in action. Here, a group of the white whales was hunting slamon. The grey one is just a young which did not yet grow its porcelain-colored skin. Beluga whale (Delphinapterus leucas), Béluga, ou… Read More
Let’s admit that it won’t be easy to see such a whale shark baby playing (or discovering how to play) with the bubbles produced by scuba divers. So cute a baby! Source: Requin-Blanc.
Two great videos. Quite different, but both amazing. The first one is really about being there at the right time (and being cool enough to keep shooting the video the whole time): The second is shot from a profesional drone and shows a very interesting behaviour (two males battling for the privilege of swimming around with… Read More
Finally, a nice picture of Mom and her little one, cruising together in calm waters: Short-finned pilot whale (Globicephala macrorhynchus, Baleine pilote, Globicéphale). Davis Strait, Nunavut, Canada August 2016.
Sunset encounters: Beaked whales according to the specialists, pilot whales do not really fear even large ships. They travel in small groups which offer nice photo opportunities. Short-finned pilot whale (Globicephala macrorhynchus, Baleine pilote, Globicéphale). Davis Strait, Nunavut, Canada August 2016.
Orcas are marvellous mammals fro mthe sea that are usually only seen from the water surface: a fin, a rostrum jsut out of the water to catch a sea lion. Nothing more. But the NOAA scientists tracked them with an aerial photo drone and brought back some astonishing photos from above.
Southern Right Whales
As seen from the cliffs in Hermanus, South Africa. August 2015.
Hermanus, in South Africa, considers itself as the world capital of “whale watching from the coast”. Reading this on the Internet reeks of overblown marketing. You can easily imagine this applied to the back of a whale far on the horizon calling for the use of the biggest binoculars. Nothing would be more wrong! You… Read More
While you may be lucky enough to see whales from the sky like we did in August 2015, thanks to African Wings in Hermanus, the most common way to approach these huge mammals is taking a boat tour in a location where they are seen quite usually. Since whales are relatively common during Summer near… Read More
To start the publication of a series of photos shot in South Africa, here is gallery of some quite unusual pictures: Whales shot from a small plane (African Wings) in Hermanus, about one hour driving out of Cape Town. We could see quite clearly a large number of whales like this Southern Right Whale paddling… Read More
Sudden drop of minke whale populations
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… Read More
Near the end of whaling?
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… Read More
See them all at http://www.naturesbestphotography.com/ Jürgen FreundOCEANSDwarf Minke WhaleRibbon 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.… Read More
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… Read More
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… Read More
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… Read More