Whales

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Dolphins found with contaminates!

Florida scientists have found human-made pollutants in the blubber of whales and dolphins – however these were not the main cause of the animals becoming stranded. About 500 whales and dolphins strand themselves every year – no one knows exactly why, although theories abound. Researchers found a wide range of substances- PCB, DDT, NPE ( found in food packaging). ( source and full article- https://www.insidescience.org/news/research-shows-range-contaminants-blubber-whales-and-dolphins ) *** A future blog will look at whale strandings...

Monitoring whales from space

Scientists have found that studying high-resolution images of whales from space is a feasible way to estimate their populations.A team, led by British Antarctic Survey (BAS), compared satellite images to data collected from traditional ship-based surveys. Reported this week in the journal Scientific Reports, this study is a big step towards developing a cost-effective method to study whales in remote and inaccessible places, that will help scientists to monitor population changes and understand their behaviour. The results show that satellite-estimated...

Whale mother & calf

Brisbane underwater photographer Jasmine Carey has won the grand prize in the Hamdan International Photography award with her image of a humpback whale and its two-week old calf off the coast of Tonga. (Source : The Guardian ) Brisbane underwater photographer Jasmine Carey describes here how she captured the shot…. “I grabbed my 5D Mark IV camera, which is encased in waterproof housing and slipped off a small tour boat into the waters of the Vavaʻu Islands in Tonga. Small...

Man rescues a whale calf, but….

A man rescued a whale calf trapped in nets off the Gold Coast, Australia from a small boat …. this from the Guardian However , he may face a fine of almost $27,000 for ’interfering with shark control nets‘. It’s unknown how long the calf – believed to be a humpback – had been trapped. It was spotted about 7am by a drone operator, and a crew from the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries arrived at the scene at 9.45am....