Latest North Pacific Right Whale Stories

Southwest Fisheries Science Center: NOAA Researchers have identified areas off southern California with high numbers of whales and assessed their risk from potentially deadly collisions with commercial ship traffic in a study released today in the scientific journal Conservation Biology. Scientists from NOAA Fisheries, the Marine Mammal Commission and Cascadia Research Collective analyzed data collected over seven years by NOAA on marine mammal and ecosystem research surveys in the...

redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports - Your Universe Online Two underwater robots with instruments that detect the calls of baleen whales heard the ‘songs’ of nine critically endangered North Atlantic right whales in the Gulf of Maine in December, scientists reported on Wednesday. Right whales, which can weigh as much as 140,000 pounds and grow up to 55 feet in length, are thought to use the area every year between November and January as a mating ground, said researchers from Woods...

April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Tourists have been coming from around the world to the coast of California to catch a glimpse of whales this year. From Avila Beach on the San Luis Obispo Bay to Monterrey and Santa Cruz on the Monterrey Bay to the great shipping channels of San Francisco Bay, humpback and blue whales have been out in record numbers. Blue and humpback whales are both endangered species that use the California coastline as a spring and summer feeding...

April Flowers for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online Noise pollution is a problem that plagues us all. Loud cars and trucks, music, airplanes and more create a constant cacophony we have to learn to block out of our conscious mind in order to deal with our lives. However, we aren't the only ones suffering from too much noise. According to a paper published in Conservation Biology, high levels of background noise, mainly due to ships, have reduced the ability of critically endangered...

Brett Smith for redOrbit.com - Your Universe Online The fin whale, like many other whales, was decimated by whaling throughout the 19th and 20th century — to the point of being considered officially endangered and being placed on the IUCN Red List. This status is determined primarily by calculating a species population and a new study suggests that scientists may have overestimated the whale’s already diminished numbers in the Mediterranean. For years, it was believed that fin...

Southern dwelling killer whales, located in the Pacific Northwest, experience more strain by lack of fish than by hordes of whale watchers, according to a study conducted in the Salish Sea. Chinook salmon, a staple for the killer whales of that area, are dwindling in number and this effects the whale population heavily. Published on June 6, 2012 in the online journal PLoS ONE, the study, led by environmental and pet-behavior consultant Katherine Ayers, focused on the glucocorticoid and...

Over a decade of science and industry working together continues to help rare whale species recover SAINT JOHN, June 6, 2012 /PRNewswire/ - This year marks the 10(th) anniversary of the International Maritime Organization's adoption of re-routed shipping lanes in the Bay of Fundy, a precedent setting initiative achieved through the collaboration of industry, led by Irving Oil, scientists from the New England Aquarium, government, academics and environmental groups for the...

Estimates of whale population size based on genetics versus historical records diverge greatly, making it difficult to fully understand the ecological implications of the large-scale commercial whaling of the 19th and early 20th centuries, but a comparison of DNA samples from modern and prehistoric gray whales supports the idea that the population was substantially larger pre-whaling and saw a sharp, recent decrease that is consistent with whaling as the cause. The full results are reported...

More than 99 percent of Antarctic blue whales were killed by commercial whalers during the 20th century, but the first circumpolar genetic study of these critically endangered whales has found a surprisingly high level of diversity among the surviving population of some 2,200 individuals. That, says lead author Angela Sremba of Oregon State University, may bode well for their future recovery. Results of the study have just been published in the open-access journal, PLoS ONE. As part of...

Blue whale vocal behavior is affected by man-made noise, even when that noise does not overlap the frequencies the whales use for communication, according to new research published Feb. 29 in the open access journal PLoS ONE. The whales were less likely to emit calls when mid-frequency sonar was present, but were more likely to do so when ship sounds were nearby, the researchers report. The study was conducted in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Southern California by Mariana Melcon and...