Latest Marine mammals Stories
By Mladen Rudman, Northwest Florida Daily News, Fort Walton Beach Dec. 12--EGLN AFB -- The federal government could soon find out if testing sophisticated weapons in the Gulf of Mexico can coexist with protecting marine mammals. The National Marine Fisheries Service is on the verge of clearing the way for the Air Armament Center to continue evaluating the Air Force's two newest munitions in the gulf. The armament center has requested authorization to fire Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff...
CLEARWATER, Fla. -- The news from Indian River Lagoon was too familiar: another dolphin gravely injured because of human action.But marine scientist Steve McCulloch immediately saw this rescue was unique. The baby bottlenose dolphin lost her tail, but perhaps her life could be saved.McCulloch, director of dolphin and whale research at the Harbor Branch Oceanographic Institution, decided to channel his anger into a solution.The solution for the dolphin - dubbed Winter - may be a prosthetic...
By Robert BirselISLAMABAD -- The highly endangered Indus river dolphin has dramatically increased in numbers in a small section of the Indus in Pakistan but the animals remain very rare and in grave danger, a scientist said on Wednesday.The unique, blind dolphin is one of the world's four freshwater dolphin species, and one of its rarest mammals.While the animals once thrived from the lower Indus up to the foothills of the Himalayas, its range has shrunk to just 20 percent of that, British...
By Deborah ZabarenkoWASHINGTON (Reuters) - Bottlenose dolphins can call each other by name when they whistle, making them the only animals besides humans known to recognize such identity information, scientists reported on Monday.Scientists have long known that dolphins' whistling calls include repeated information thought to be their names, but a new study indicates dolphins recognize these names even when voice cues are removed from the sound.For example, a dolphin might be expected to...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- America's most popular dog is a big hit with scientists who are using Labrador retrievers to hunt up seals for study in the Arctic. The dogs are proving nifty at finding the breathing holes and snow lairs of ringed seals, which after centuries of being hunted by human and beast alike, are strictly covert. "Ringed seals are pretty well adapted to not being found because they live in a world with polar bears and human seal hunters," said Peter Boveng, program...
SEATTLE -- The killer whales that chase salmon in this region's inland waters feed almost exclusively on chinook, to the extent that the orca population ebbs and flows right along with that of the West Coast's largest and longest-lived salmon, researchers said Tuesday.The whales settle for chum salmon for six to eight weeks in the fall, when most of the chinook are gone, John Ford of Canada's Department of Fisheries and Oceans said at the 2006 Symposium on Southern Resident Killer Whales, a...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) - When large cruise ships get too close to harbor seals, the animals become distressed, according to a new federal study. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released a report Monday on seal behavior in Disenchantment Bay, a Southeast fjord that cruise ships frequent for a view of the Hubbard Glacier. The study, which was a cooperative effort involving NOAA, the cruise industry and the Yakutat Tlingits, found that when the large ships got closer than...
HONOLULU -- Rain falling on the surface of the ocean can be heard more than a mile deep, and at some frequencies it's louder than passing ships, according to oceanographer Jeff Nystuen. Nystuen, of the Applied Physics Laboratory at the University of Washington, is one among scientists studying how sound travels through the ocean, to better understand how loud, man-made noises might affect marine creatures. "We don't really know what is too loud underwater, and we need to know what the...
ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Sperm whales in the Gulf of Alaska are likely using the sounds of fishing boat engines as underwater dinner bells to hone in on longlines hung with valuable sablefish, scientists said. The engines make loud, erratic bubbling noises as fishermen maneuver their boats while winching up hundreds of bottom-dwelling sablefish. "That's the whales' cue," said Jan Straley, an assistant professor at the University of Alaska Southeast who since 2002 has helped lead an...
JOHANNESBURG -- Ten dead Irrawaddy dolphins have been found in Cambodia's Mekong river, eight of them calves, pushing one of the rarest cetaceans nearer extinction, the environmental group WWF International said on Friday.The deaths mean a 10 percent drop in the number of Irrawaddy dolphins living in the Mekong, previously thought to be between 80 and 100. They are restricted to a 190km (115 mile) stretch of the river in the Cambodia/Laos border area.There are believed to be about 1,000 of...
Latest Marine mammals Reference Libraries
The marine otter (Lontra feline) is a member of the weasel family, and can be found in South America. It prefers a habitat in rocky coastal areas, with a range that includes the entire coastline of Chile and extends to southern Peru and Argentina. It has been found on the Falkland Islands, but individuals here do not represent a constant population. Unlike other species of otter, the marine otter chooses to live near waters with high winds and swells. It may use caves and crevices as dens,...
The crabeater seal (Lobodon carcinophagus) is a true seal that can be found around the whole of Antarctica. Its range also includes small areas in South America, New Zealand, Africa, and Australia. It resides on the pack ice zone for the entire year, even as it shifts seasonally, and prefers to stay in the continental shelf area in water with a depth of less than 1,968 feet. Because the populations are so wide spread and are sufficiently mixed, there have been no subspecies found. Because...
The Mediterranean monk seal (Monachus monachus) is a rare pinniped, or “fin-footed mammal” that can be found in areas of the Mediterranean Sea, as well as in the Atlantic waters of the Tropic of Cancer. Not much is known about the chosen land habitats of this seal, but until the 20th century, it could be seen relaxing or pup rearing on open beaches. It now dwells in underwater caves and caverns in order to escape human actions including tourism and expansion. The Mediterranean monk...
Profilicollis is a genus of acanthocephalan parasites that are found in crustaceans and shorebirds. Profilicollis parasites use decapod crustaceans as intermediate hosts and species of shorebirds as definitive hosts. The parasite first develops in mole crabs of North and South America. After it infects a mole crab, it becomes dormant until the crab is eaten by a suitable bird, such as a Surf scoter or Herring Gull. Once the parasite has passed through the stomach of the bird, it develops...
The Chinese white dolphin, otherwise known as the Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin, is a species of humpback dolphin that can be found in the waters of Southeast Asia. When breeding, they will travel to the waters around South Africa to Australia. There are currently two recognized subspecies of the Chinese white dolphin. The coloring of the Chinese white dolphin can vary due to age and location. When born, calves are actually black, but will change to grey, then pink with white spotting,...
