A population of bowhead whales living in the western Arctic has long followed the same migration patterns. But new research suggests that climate change and the subsequent melting of sea ice are altering their movements, raising concerns about the future impacts on these whales and the Indigenous populations reliant on them for nutrition and cultural […]
Tag: bowhead whales
Cloistered Arctic whales face a bigger climate threat than polar bears
The tracking of cold-water creatures offers insights into the worrisome effects of global warming. They swim in icy waters off the coast of Greenland, dive to depths of nearly two kilometers and are so secluded that, once upon a time, their long, straight tusks could be pawned off by Vikings on gullible Europeans as unicorn […]
3 Oil Companies Pull Out of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
Three oil companies have canceled their leases in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Drilling in the refuge has long been a controversial issue, as the 19.5-million-acre wilderness area is home to 45 species of mammals including polar bears, bowhead whales and caribou and considered sacred by the Indigenous Gwich’in people, according to the Gwich’in Steering […]
Arctic biodiversity at risk as world overshoots climate planetary boundary
Today, bowhead whales still transit the fringes of Arctic waters. Polar bears hunt blubbery ringed seals from rafts of ice. And ivory gulls ride gale force winds, plucking juvenile polar cod from the roiling sea. But for how much longer? Despite more than a century of scientific observation, the Central Arctic Ocean remains one of […]
Norway’s barbaric slaughter of hundreds of majestic minke whales casts a shadow over its proud, wealthy and enlightened outlook
On the quayside in the picturesque Norwegian village of Andenes, the crew have been preparing their ship for the start of the new season in three days’ time. The engines have been serviced, the wooden meat-cooling pallets have been lifted on to the deck and the deadly exploding harpoons have been loaded. This weekend the […]
Bowhead whales: jazz artists of the deep whose calls rival birdsong
How do bowhead whales in the unbroken darkness of the Arctic’s polar winter keep busy during breeding season? They sing, of course. From late autumn to early spring, off the east coast of Greenland, some 200 bowheads, hunted to the edge of extinction, serenade each other with compositions from a vast repertoire of song, according […]
Right Whales Wronged
The waters of the mid-Atlantic are alive with sound. The snaps, squeaks, bubbles, pops, and whistles of marine life ring through the water, interspersed with the low calls of North Atlantic right whales. But this chorus of sound may soon be drowned out. Already the right whales’ calls are few and far between. The North […]
Ice Age bowhead whales’ survival surprises scientists
Ancient DNA shows that bowhead whales bucked the trend to survive the last Ice Age, say scientists. The demise of cold-adapted land mammals such as mammoths has been linked to rising temperatures around 11,000 years ago. But researchers were surprised to find a contrasting population boom for whales living off the coast of Britain. Their […]