Biodiversity. When you hear this word, what do you picture? Iconic animals like African elephants, gray wolves and humpback whales? Or multicolored coral species that make up a reef system? Or bacteria and microbes that regulate nutrients in the soil, or oxygen-releasing phytoplankton that live in the ocean’s sunlit zones? While biodiversity does embrace all […]
Tag: humpback whales
Humpback whales entangled in fishing nets are rescued by Australians using cutters
Wayne Phillips has both feet firmly on dry land as he acts out cutting a whale loose from fishing gear. The 51-year-old head of marine sciences at SeaWorld in Queensland oversees the park’s marine rescue team – four cutters, a coordinator, a captain and a videographer – who untangle humpback whales that have become bound […]
Dolphins and whales are thriving in UK waters despite pressure from human activities
Wally the walrus was the star attraction as he toured the coasts of the UK, Ireland, France and Spain before later turning up in Iceland. But the seemingly happy wanderer was a striking example of how mammals’ routines are being disrupted, sometimes dramatically. And The Wildlife Trusts are warning that marine life is suffering from […]
How one British Columbia group, First Nations bought out trophy hunters
Butchart Gardens, the slopes of Whistler, a wine-lover’s adventure through the Okanagan — these are some of the hot spots many tourists to British Columbia look to tick off on their way through YVR. But for a select few, the province’s draw lies in its woods, broken highlands and rugged coastlines, a canvas to hook […]
Humpback Whale Habitat Protected by Biden Administration
The Biden Administration took a significant step to protect humpback whales. The National Marine Fisheries Service (NFMS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and Commerce departments have finalized a rule to protect ocean habitats used by humpback whales. Humpback whales were once hunted to the brink of extinction and now two of the five “breeding […]
New York’s whales to be studied for the first time
The habits of New York’s little-understood whale population are to be fully analysed for the first time, with scientists hoping the new information will help protect the marine behemoths that navigate one of the busiest shipping areas in the world. An acoustic monitoring buoy has been deployed off the coast of Long Island to eavesdrop […]
Video: Mysterious New Humpback Whale “Song” Detected?
The latest release in the humpback whale’s haunting sound collection is a track so unusual that scientists hardly know what to make of it. Unlike anything on the hit album Songs of the Humpback Whale (released in 1970, the wildlife recording went multi-platinum), the mysterious new noise has such a low beat it’s scarcely audible. […]
Removing Walls of Death: Saving Sea Turtles from Drift Nets
An endangered Pacific leatherback sea turtle swims through the cold, nutrient-rich waters off California where it has made an impressive journey from its nesting beaches in Indonesia to feed on jellyfish. But, it encounters an unwelcome surprise, a mile long drift net in which its flipper becomes entangled. Because this net sits overnight in the […]