Latest Humpback Whale Stories
So you think you have a long commute?MOSS LANDING, Calif. -- Marine scientists recently published a research paper in the science journal, biology letters, that found humpback whales migrate over 5,100 miles from Central America to their feeding grounds off Antarctica; a record distance undertaken by any mammal. Kristin Rasmussen, a biologist with Cascadia Research Collective, and lead author in the study, finds the record-breaking migration interesting, but is most pleased that the study...
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) - Rescuers have partially disentangled a curtain of fishing net from the tail of a humpback whale in a waterway southeast of Juneau, officials said Tuesday. The gillnet is still wrapped around the whale's tail, however, the cetacean is not in imminent danger, said Sheela McLean, spokeswoman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The crew followed the whale around Stephens Passage, southeast of Juneau, using a satellite tracking device and managed to...
BANGKOK, Thailand -- Australian researchers said Thursday that analyzing the skin flakes of some whales could help determine their age, a development that could invalidate one argument for killing them.Japan has long argued that killing baleen whales, such as humpbacks and minkes, is the only way to determine how old they are, and vital to better understanding the animals' behavior.Tokyo plans to kill over 1,000 minke whales in 2006, over 400 more than last year and more than double the...
By Michael ChristieFRIGATE BAY, St. Kitts and Nevis (Reuters) - Greenland asked an international whaling body on Saturday to examine whether it could extend whaling by its Inuit hunters to endangered humpbacks and bowheads, alarming environmentalists.Anti-whaling nations attending an International Whaling Commission, or IWC, meeting in the Caribbean island state of St Kitts and Nevis said they were opposed to the proposal given the fragile state of most whale species.Environmentalists also...
HONOLULU - Greg Kaufman says his whale-watching boat was doing everything by the book: cruising below 13 knots and staying 100 yards from any visible humpback as a crew member scanned the ocean atop a lookout.Still, it wasn't enough to prevent the Pacific Whale Foundation vessel from running over a calf that surged from underneath March 9.It was one of seven confirmed encounters in the current breeding season, which is drawing to a close but already has set a record for such accidents....
The songs of the humpback whale are among the most complex in the animal kingdom. Researchers have now mathematically confirmed that whales have their own syntax that uses sound units to build phrases that can be combined to form songs that last for hours. Until now, only humans have demonstrated the ability to use such a hierarchical structure of communication. The research, published online in the March 2006 issue of the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, offers a new approach to...
LANAI CITY, Hawaii - A 40-foot humpback whale wiggled off into the deep without a look back after ocean researchers and volunteers freed it from a tangle of abandoned fishing lines and other debris, possibly saving its life. Whale watchers were looking for another dangerously entangled whale in waters around Hawaii on Wednesday, but experts warned against anyone trying to do the job themselves. Disentangling whales requires a special permit.The rescue on Monday, using poles to untangle...
By Frank Jack Daniel SAN IGNACIO, Mexico (Reuters) - The number of gray whales making a yearly migration from the icy North Pacific to breed in Mexico's warm lagoons has dropped this year, scientists say, possibly because of changing weather patterns. Gray whale researcher William Megill said food shortages in the whales' feeding grounds near Canada and Alaska mean that some of the thousands who make the annual 5,000-mile (8,000-km) journey have departed late or even stayed behind this...
LONDONÂ -- A marine mammal expert conducted a necropsy Sunday on the whale that wandered into the River Thames, hoping to determine what caused the 20-foot-long animal to veer off course and splash through central London before dying during Saturday's rescue attempt. The Zoological Society of London said it hoped preliminary results on what killed the Northern bottlenose whale would be available Wednesday. Paul Jepson, who has conducted government-funded research into why dolphins and...
For the first time ever, a genetic study has followed a single humpback whale from one ocean basin to another, adding to traditional notions of the migratory patterns of these majestic marine mammals in the process, according to researchers from the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), the American Museum of Natural History (AMNH), and New York University. In the most recent Royal Society's Biology Letters, a male humpback whale that was first sighted in Madagascar's Antongil Bay in 2000 was...
Latest Humpback Whale Reference Libraries
The Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) is a mammal, which belongs to the baleen whale suborder. It is a large whale: an adult usually ranges between 40"“50 ft (12"“16 m) long and weighs approximately 79,000 pounds (36,000 kilograms, or 36 tons. It is well known for its breaching (leaping out of the water) and its unusually long front fins. The Humpback Whale lives in oceans and seas around the world, and is regularly sought out by whale-watchers. Feeding The Humpback Whale...
Right whales are baleen whales belonging to the family Balaenidae. There are four species in two genera: Eubalaena (three species) and Balaena (one species, the Bowhead Whale, also called the Greenland Right Whale). Right whales can grow to 60 ft long and weigh up to 100 metric tons. Their bodies are mostly black, with distinctive white Calluses (skin abrasions) on their heads. They are called "right whales" because whalers thought the whales were the "right" ones to catch. The Right Whale...
The Minke Whale or Lesser Rorqual is a marine mammal belonging to the suborder of baleen whales. The Minke Whale was first identified by Lacepede in 1804. Taxonomy Most modern classifications split the Minke Whale into two species; the Common or Northern Minke Whale and the Antarctic or Southern Minke Whale. Taxonomists further categorize the Common Minke Whale into two or three subspecies; the North Atlantic Minke Whale, the North Pacific Minke Whale and Dwarf Minke Whale. All Minke...
The Blue Whale (Balaenoptera musculus) is a marine mammal that is in the suborder of baleen whales. At up to 30 meters (100 feet) in length and 140 tons or more in weight, it is believed to be the largest animal ever to have lived on Earth. Blue Whales were abundant in most oceans around the world until the beginning of the twentieth century. For the first 40 years of the twentieth century they were hunted by whalers almost to extinction. Hunting of the blue whale was outlawed by the...
The Fin Whale (Balaenoptera physalus), also called the Finback Whale and belongs to the baleen whales suborder. It is the second largest whale and also the second largest animal currently living. The Fin whale can grow to 85 ft (26 m) long. The fin Whale can be found worldwide and in Europe is readily seen in the Bay of Biscay. Taxonomy The Fin Whale is a close relative of the Blue Whale. The differences began to occur between 3 and 5 million years ago. Hybrids between the two...
