Sea Monster

Tag: whales

  • Pushing the boundaries of dolphin communication

    For all of you who dream of talking to dolphins (I know you are out there!) here is a story in the NYT: Up to now, dolphins have shown themselves to be adept at responding to human prompts, with food as a reward for performing a task. “It’s rare that we ask dolphins to seek…

  • Obama presses Iceland over fin whale hunt

    From Andrew Revkin at the NYT: On Thursday, President Obama ordered government agencies to ramp up pressure on Iceland to end its slaughter of endangered fin whales, the second largest whale species. But the president stopped short of imposing trade sanctions. He issued a Message to Congress with the details, including this passage: Of particular concern to…

  • Don’t go whale watching

    Don’t go whale watching is what my kiteboarding instructors Brandon and Trevor told me when I first learned. The idea is that when you head out offshore, you are supposed to turn around and tack back in and not “whale watch”, ie, don’t go too far out! Well late this afternoon I went for a…

  • Whales love Mariachi!

    [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZS_6-IwMPjM&[/youtube] Hat tip to Adrian Stier

  • Sea monster proves to be a regular animal

    The mystery is solved. After more than a week of holding their collective breath, sea monster enthusiasts throughout the world can now rest easy, albeit a bit deflated. The serpentine 30-foot creature that washed up on a Scottish beach has been identified by a crack team from the Scottish Agricultural College. Alas, it appears that…

  • Humpback whale speaks, says “Thank you”

    Well, maybe not in so many words. Not in English anyway. But to those who believe that animals don’t experience emotions–and I gather they still exist–I challenge you to watch this and tell me you don’t understand how the whale feels [Show starts about 6:30 in] [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EBYPlcSD490[/youtube] P.S. Don’t try this at home kids.

  • Underwater robots listen out for whales

    Whales are tough crowd to study. They swim all over the place and hold their breath for ages – those poor cetacean biologists must have a heck of a time keeping up with them. Well, one way of tracking them is to listen for their songs – but don’t just stick your head underwater and…

  • Whales converge on the Big Apple

    At least seven species of whales — including the rare and endangered Atlantic Right Whale and the world’s largest animal, the Blue Whale —  have been recorded singing at an “open mike night” (actually many days and nights) in the waters of New York harbor and Long Island Sound by researchers from Cornell University’s Bioacoustics…

  • Super-Aggregations of Krill and Humpback Whales observed in the southern ocean

    Scientists from Duke – just down the road – have published a neat report of a “super-agregation” of humback whales feeding on a swarm of krill in Wilhelmina Bay, along the coast of Antarctica. The team was working in the area in May 2009 when they stumbled into the massive feeding aggregation, certainly attracted by their…

  • Whale culture dispersed by traveling minstrels

    New research shows that the legendary songs of humpback whales evolve rapidly as they’re spread throughout the world’s population by traveling  males whose new songs  are adopted by listeners along their migration routes. Male humpbacks have a highly stereotyped, repetitive, song that functions in sexual selection, either through mate attraction or male “social sorting”. Males…