I received a website request for the names of five baleen whales, most likely for a school project. Then I realized, I’ve probably never listed all the baleen whales! Then I started flipping through all my whale books and wouldn’t you know it, every list is slightly different. So I decided to stick with the… [read more]
Blue whales everywhere off Los Angeles
If you have never seen a blue whale and you happen to live in the Los Angeles area, then it’s time to go whale watching! There are blue whales everywhere off the coast right now feeding on mass amounts of krill. On Sunday I went whale watching on the Spirit based in San Pedro and… [read more]
Great whale watching near Santa Barbara!
Wow, whale watching off Santa Barbara’s coast is amazing right now. On Saturday, ACS/LA hosted their Summertime Blues Whale Watch Adventure aboard the Condor Express and we watched whales galore lunge feeding on mass amounts of krill in the Santa Barbara Channel. Every where we looked there was either a humpback whale or a blue… [read more]
Gray whale moving on down the road
Yesterday I received an update from the MARMAM (Marine Mammals Research and Conservation Discussion) email list on the famous gray whale recently spotted near Israel. In the last 23 days, the gray whale has been on the move and was just spotted near Barcelona, Spain on May 30th! Apparently, the gray whale “was consistently heading… [read more]
Fin whales: cheetahs of the sea
Second place is such a drag. It means that first place just got away. It means that you were almost the champion. It means that no one gets to hear your national anthem blast during the Olympics. And well let’s face it, second place finishers tend to be forgotten. But what’s that annoying phrase told… [read more]
Sexual maturity in whales and dolphins
Ah puberty, those awkward years on the road to sexual maturity. It’s not clear if whales and dolphins must also suffer the dramatic ups and downs of the human teenager, but some do have to suffer big differences between the sexes when it comes to the actually timing of sexual maturity. In several posts we’ve… [read more]
Whales and dolphins have big babies
For those of you with your legs still crossed after reading the average gestation time for whales and dolphins, I now present you with one more reason to really think twice about ocean living. It turns out at birth that many whales and dolphins enter the world already quite large. Here’s the low down straight… [read more]
Dead gray whale ate sweat pants for lunch
I have heard many stories about the devastating impacts of pollution, how fishing gear entangles and strangles marine mammals, how bits of plastic end up in birds’ stomachs, and how plastic bags are mistaken for jellyfish by turtles. But sweat pants in a gray whale’s stomach?! That is a first. And unfortunately won’t be the… [read more]
Very cool baleen whale fossil
Well I have to say reading the article on the cetacean fossil record in the Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals really challenged my attention span a few times. But sticking with it paid off when I happened upon the part about the Llanocetus denticrenatus. This is the name given to a very unique 35 million year… [read more]
Cetacean communities and coexistence
How do whales, dolphins and porpoises all get along and share their ocean home? This question is another one scientists hope to answer through the study of cetacean ecology. Possibly they make pacts with each other and agree to go after different prey and stay in certain locations to prevent fighting over resources and bad… [read more]