Latest Whale Stories

Researchers from the University of British Columbia have identified a gene in balsam fir trees similar to another substance called Ambergris. which could potentially pave the way for cheaper and more sustainable ways to produce plant-based fixatives and scents used in perfumes. As it stands, the collection and refining process of ambergris is quite costly and controversial, as ambergris is collected from washed up pieces of sperm whale vomit. The process goes like this: Sperm whales often...

YARMOUTH PORT, Mass., April 4, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A new app for iPad and iPhone combines science and technology to help save critically endangered North Atlantic right whales by reducing threats of collisions with large ships along the East Coast of North America. The free Whale Alert App is the result of a multi-organization effort that brings together government, academia, private sector industries and IFAW (the International Fund for Animal Welfare, www.ifaw.org)....

Smithsonian scientists have recently described a new species of toothed whale that once lived in warm climates during the Pliocene era 3-4 million years ago. These whales may have possibly been a close relative to the modern day Beluga and Narwhal. Those happy looking whales, the Beluga and Narwhal, live exclusively in colder climates like the Arctic and sub-arctic. The challenge now for the scientists is to uncover the mystery of why the whales moved farther north when once they were...

In the dark world of the underwater ocean, whales need to locate their prey accurately and quickly. In low-vision conditions whales use echolocation to find fish swimming nearby, and now it has been discovered that they can focus their acoustical “vision” to accurately located slightly differing objects. For this study, Laura Kloepper from the University of Hawaii and her her PhD supervisor, Paul Nachtigall, utilized the help of Kina the False Killer Whale, a species related to...

False killer whales focus echolocation clicks Hunting in the ocean's murky depths, vision is of little use, so toothed whales and dolphins (odontocetes) rely on echolocation to locate tasty morsels with incredible precision. Laura Kloepper from the University of Hawaii, USA, explains that odontocetes produce their distinctive echolocation clicks in nasal structures in the forehead and broadcast them through a fat-filled acoustic lens, called the melon. 'Studies by other people showed...

A rapid increase in shipping in the formerly ice-choked waterways of the Arctic poses a significant increase in risk to the region's marine mammals and the local communities that rely on them for food security and cultural identity, according to an Alaska Native groups and the Wildlife Conservation Society who convened at a recent workshop. The workshop—which ran from March 12-14—examined the potential impacts to the region's wildlife and highlighted priorities for future management of...

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...

WASHINGTON, March 8, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Internet giant Amazon.com has now officially banned the sale of all whale and dolphin products from its wholly owned Japanese website, following global outrage that these products were offered for sale. Amazon confirmed the prohibition on its main website by adding language under the Food and Beverage section that prohibits "Products containing shark, whale, or dolphin" and Amazon's Japanese website contains a similar ban on...

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...

Internet giant urged to clean house and ban all cetacean products WASHINGTON, Feb. 21, 2012 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Internet marketplace giant Amazon.com is today called on to stop supporting commercial whaling by immediately and permanently banning the sale of all products from whales, dolphins and porpoises (collectively known as "cetaceans"). Amazon.com's Unpalatable Profits, a new report by the Environmental Investigation Agency, launched in co-operation with...