Understanding of Hearing in Baleen Whales Amplified

 

ScienceDaily (Apr. 17, 2012) — For decades, scientists have known that dolphins and other toothed whales have specialized fats associated with their jaws, which efficiently convey sound waves from the ocean to their ears. But until now, the hearing systems of their toothless grazing cousins, baleen whales, remained a mystery.

Unlike toothed whales, baleen whales do not have enlarged canals in their jaws where specialized fats sit. While toothed whales use echolocation to find prey, baleen whales generally graze on zooplankton, and so some scientists have speculated that baleen whales may not need such a sophisticated auditory system. But a new study by scientists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), published April 10, 2012, in The Anatomical Record, has shown that some baleen whales also have fats leading to their ears.

The scientists propose that toothed whales may not be the only whales that use fats to transmit sound in water, as previously believed, and the fats in both types of whales may share a common evolutionary origin.

Little progress had been made on the auditory anatomy of baleen whales because specimens to study are hard to get. Unlike many toothed whales, they are large, not kept in captivity, rarely strand on beaches, and decompose rapidly when they do.

For the new study, lead author Maya Yamato, a graduate student in the MIT/WHOI Joint Program in Oceanography, received seven heads of minke whales that stranded and died, mostly on beaches on Cape Cod. She collaborated with the International Fund for Animal Welfare's (IFAW) Marine Mammal Rescue and Research unit in Yarmouth Port, Mass.

The whale heads were scanned using computerized tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at the Computerized Scanning and Imaging (CSI) lab at WHOI and MRI facility at Massachusetts Ear and Eye Infirmary in Boston. Using these biomedical techniques, the researchers generated 3-D visualizations of the whales' internal anatomy, with both bones and soft tissue intact and in their undisturbed natural positions, providing "an unprecedented view of the internal anatomy of these animals," the scientists wrote.

 

The fats associated with minke whale ears (shown here in yellow), previously seen only in toothed whales, may efficiently transmit sound waves from the external environment to ears inside of the whales' heads (shown here in purple). (Credit: Maya Yamato, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution)

Then the whale heads were dissected in the necropsy facility at the Marine Mammal Center at WHOI. Together, the studies showed that all the minke whales had "a large, well-formed fatbody" connecting to the ears, providing a potential transmission pathway guiding sound from the environment to their inner ears.

"This is the first successful study of intact baleen whale head anatomy with these advanced imaging techniques," said WHOI Senior Scientist Darlene Ketten, director of the CSI lab at WHOI and co-author on the paper. "It really is an important addition to our understanding of large whale head and auditory systems."

Also collaborating on the study were Julie Arruda and Scott Cramer at the CSI and Kathleen Moore of IFAW.

This research was funded by a National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship, a WHOI Ocean Life Institute Graduate Fellowship, the Joint Industry Program, the Office of Naval Research, and the U.S. Navy.

Fleshing out a model of whale-like proportions

It is not every day you get to build the heart of a blue whale, but creative workshop Human Dynamo is on to its third.

The model-making company, based in the Wellington suburb of Miramar, is now adding the final touches to a full-scale blue whale's heart it has been building for Naturkunde Museum

in Munster, Germany

 

The workshop first built a heart in 2008 for Te Papa to use in its Whale Tohora exhibition, with plenty of space and cavities allowing for children to get up close and personal with the large organ.

With that organ now travelling with the exhibition's world tour, Te Papa commissioned a second heart to remain in Wellington.

Now onto their third build, the creators and co-owners of Human Dynamo have spent the last three months crafting the 1.8m-tall heart.

With each fibreglass heart bringing its own set of challenges, they had far from perfected the creation of whale hearts, artist Sue Dorrington said.

"We create them to be interactive for kids so that takes a slightly different form each time, much like how a real heart is individual."

Human Dynamo was founded in 1998. Since then, the team's work has included the creation of prehistoric shark jaws for a Kelly Tarlton's Underwater World exhibit, a supersized giant weta for Hukawhai Glacier Centre and work on films such as District 9 and Avatar.

There had been some enquiries from other interested museums, but Te Papa owns the intellectual property rights to the whale heart exhibition, so it would be a matter of reaching an agreement, Ms Dorrington said.

"It's a pretty big project, but the kids have responded really well to it at Te Papa so I'm glad I've been able to get involved."

How to Make High-End Perfumes Without Whale Barf

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University of British Columbia researchers have identified a gene in balsam fir trees that could facilitate cheaper and more sustainable production of plant-based fixatives and scents used in the fragrance industry and reduce the need for ambergris, a substance harvested from whale barf.

When sperm whales consume sharp objects, such as seashells and fish bones, their gut produces a sticky substance to protect their digestive organs. They then regurgitate the mixture -- much like cats throwing up fur balls -- and the vomit, reacting with seawater, turns into rock-like objects that wash ashore. These are collected and refined for their fixative properties. Called ambergris, the scented compound is added to high-end perfumes to help the fragrance stay on the skin longer.

The discovery was led by Prof. Joerg Bohlmann and postdoctoral research associate Philipp Zerbe at UBC's Michael Smith Laboratories. Details are published in the April 6 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

"The use of ambergris in the fragrance industry has been controversial," says Bohlmann, who is a professor of Botany and Forest Sciences. "First of all, it's an animal byproduct and the use of such in cosmetics has been problematic, not to mention it comes from the sperm whale, an endangered species."

Even though much of the ambergris approved for use today is manually collected along the shorelines of known sperm whale habitats in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and in the Caribbean, it is still a costly venture. In the Mediterranean, sage has been cultivated for the production of a plant-based substitute of ambergris, but yields are variable and can be unpredictable, similar to manual collection of ambergris.

"We've now discovered that a gene from balsam fir is much more efficient at producing such natural compounds, which could make production of this bio-product less expensive and more sustainable," says Bohlmann.

The discovery and related technology is currently being commercialized through UBC's University-Industry Liaison Office. The research was supported by Genome Canada, Genome British Columbia, and Genome Alberta through the PhytoMetaSyn Project, and through grants from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.

 

From Science Daily: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120405075357.htm

New iPad, iPhone App Helps Mariners Avoid Endangered Right Whales

SILVER SPRING, Maryland -- Mariners along the U.S. east coast can now download a new iPad and iPhone application that warns them when they enter areas of high risk of collision with critically endangered North Atlantic right whales. The free Whale Alert app provides one source for information about right whale management measures and the latest data about right whale detections, all overlaid on NOAA digital charts.

"Whale Alert represents an innovative collaboration to protect this critically endangered species," said David Wiley, NOAA's Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary research coordinator and project lead. "Whale conservation is greater than any one organization and this project shows how many organizations can unite for a good cause.

Mariners operating along the U.S. east coast can receive all relevant right whale management initiatives and warnings via their iPad & iPhone

A key feature of Whale Alert is a display linking near real-time acoustic buoys that listen for right whale calls to an iPad or iPhone on a ship's bridge showing the whale's presence to captains transiting the shipping lanes in and around Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. "The idea that right whales are directly contributing to conservation through their own calls is pretty exciting," said Christopher Clark, whose team at the Bioacoustics Research Program at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology helped develop the acoustic detection and warning system.

North Atlantic right whales, which live along North America's east coast from Nova Scotia to Florida, are one of the world's rarest large animals and a species on the brink of extinction. Recent estimates put the population of North Atlantic right whales at approximately 350 to 550 animals. Collision with ships is a leading cause of right whale death.

"Massport is proud to be part of this effort. We are working with our cruise and shipping vessel partners to educate mariners about the whales, and the importance of this great new tool," said Michael Leone, port director for the Massachusetts Port Authority. "The maritime community has always sought ways to increase right whale survival. Whale Alert does this by using science and technology to let mariners know where their vessel is in relation to the whales and conservation measures."

Whale Alert, a free app, can be downloaded from the App Store. Credit: NOAA

The link to the listening network is only part of what Whale Alert does. The app uses GPS, Automatic Identification System, Internet and digital nautical chart technologies to alert mariners to NOAA's right whale conservation measures that are active in their immediate vicinity. NOAA, through its NOAA Fisheries Service, is the U.S. agency with responsibility for protecting and recovering this endangered species.

"Endangered right whales are particularly vulnerable to being hit and killed by ships, but we can save them," said Patrick Ramage, global whale director for the International Fund for Animal Welfare and one of the collaborators on Whale Alert. "Right whales need dramatic conservation progress to survive. This new iPad app gives these whales a fighting chance."

"The app also moves whale conservation into the 21st century," said Brad Winney co-founder of EarthNC, the developer of the Whale Alert mobile application. "Whale Alert highlights the powerful role today's web and mobile based technologies can have in the preservation efforts of endangered species worldwide."

Whale Alert has been developed by a collaboration of government agencies, academic institutions, non-profit conservation groups and private sector industries, led by scientists at NOAA's Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. Collaborating organizations include the sanctuary, Bioacoustics Research Program at Cornell University, Center for Coastal and Ocean Mapping at the University of New Hampshire, EarthNC, Excelerate Energy, EOM Offshore, Gaia GPS, International Fund for Animal Welfare, Massachusetts Port Authority, NOAA Fisheries Service, National Park Service, Cape Cod National Seashore, NYK Lines (North America), United States Coast Guard and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.

Whale Alert can be downloaded free of charge from the App store. More information on Whale Alert and the groups responsible for its development can be found at http://stellwagen.noaa.gov/protect/whalealert.html

From:http://www.underwatertimes.com/news.php?article_id=32710094856

Humpback whale songs may change tune unexpectedly...

The mystery surrounding the songs of humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) has gotten deeper thanks to findings from researchers in the USA, Madagascar and Western Australia.

Published in the January 2012 edition of Marine Mammal Science, the study by Murray et al is the first to document whales within the same ocean basin singing almost completely different songs.

“This is an exception to what is usually found when comparing song from breeding sites within the same ocean during a breeding season,” says researcher Anita Murray, currently at University of Queensland’s Cetacean Ecology and Acoustics Laboratory.

“Males from breeding sites within the same ocean basin usually sing the same song—meaning they sing the same themes in the same thematic order.”

In fact, the whales monitored off the coasts of Madagascar and off Perth, Exmouth and Pender Bay only had one theme in common out of 11 recorded.

“Our study indicates the cultural transmission of song between whales from different breeding assemblages is not as clear as once believed,” says Ms Murray.

She speculates the difference in song could be due to interactions between breeding grounds in Madagascar and Gabon, noting 2003 research that found the whales sharing the same song despite being in different basins.

A similar outcome was found in Australian waters in 2000 when Western Australian song replaced eastern Australian song over a two-year span.

Ms Murray believes some geographical overlap occurs in which members 0f separate basins interact. Unlike in the Northern Hemisphere, there are no land masses to block this type of mixing in the Southern Hemisphere.

Different whale assemblages could come into contact with one another during migration to Antarctic feeding grounds, or during the feeding season itself.

“This study is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what we have left to discover about the complicated and dynamic cultural transmission of song in the Southern Hemisphere,” says Ms Murray.

Unravelling this mystery will be a challenge, involving studying song comparisons from Gabon, Madagascar, WA and eastern Australia over multiple years to understand the patterns and directions of transmission.

Of course, knowing how songs are transmitted still doesn’t answer the mystery of whale song itself.

Humpback whale song is a male acoustic display used on winter breeding grounds, migration routes and summer feeding grounds.

From: Underwater Times

source url: http://www.sciencewa.net.au/topics/fisheries-a-water/item/1303-humpback-whale-songs-change-tune-unexpectedly

Listen below to some recordings of humpback whales vocalizing along with some great footage!

Scientists Look Far to the North to Explain Young Whale in San Francisco Bay

By JOHN UPTON-The Bay Citizen

Published: March 17, 2012

Recent sightings of a gray whale and her infant calf swimming near Alcatraz and Sausalito in San Francisco Bay illuminated a likely repercussion of melting polar ice, scientists said.

Gray whales normally mate in the tropical lagoons of Baja California in the winter, migrate north to chilly polar waters to feed on shrimp-like prey that blanket ocean floors in the spring and summer, and return to Mexico the following winter to give birth in the lagoons, where the young are protected from sharks and orcas that hunt in the open ocean.

But the relatively small size of the calf that followed its wayward mother into the Bay — about that of a newborn, which is 15 feet — indicated that its mother calved as she migrated south along the coastline — just as others of her kind are heading north for the summer feeding grounds.

“We’re seeing more and more calves born before they get all the way down to Mexico,” said Wayne Perryman, leader of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s cetacean health and life history program at the agency’s office in La Jolla.

Researchers have been cataloguing changes in the population’s feeding and migration patterns. Some changes are thought to be the result of climate change, while others are linked to the recovery of the species from overhunting.

Mr. Perryman said gray whales, including pregnant cows, are leaving polar waters later than was the case 15 to 20 years ago, and he is testing reasons for the shift.

As ice sheets retreat northward, the whales might be taking longer to reach their food before they turn south again. Or perhaps they cannot find enough food in time to keep to traditional schedules.

“Gray whales are feeding farther and farther north,” Mr. Perryman said. “Their primary feeding grounds have shifted.”

Delayed migrations and open-ocean calving are not the only changes detected in the population, which has recovered to a population of more than 20,000 since hunting of the whales was outlawed in the 1940s.

Some gray whales have begun feeding off the northern Californian coastline, pursuing different prey than is found in polar waters, according to James Harvey, interim director of the Moss Landing Marine Laboratories.

Meanwhile, the population appears to be relearning direct migration routes that were forgotten when many of the giant mammals were slaughtered by whalers.

The whales have learned to go west around the Channel Islands off Southern California, instead of hugging the coast, and new research led by Mr. Harvey shows that they have resumed direct routes between the Point Reyes and San Francisco peninsulas, bypassing the mouth of the Bay.

“The more shortcuts you can take, the shorter the time you’re migrating and the less energy you’re using,” Mr. Harvey said.

Mr. Harvey said the wayward mother in the bay, meanwhile, was probably hugging the coast to protect her infant from predators when she accidentally followed the shoreline into San Francisco Bay.

“If you’re a female with a calf,” Mr. Harvey said, “the best thing to do is swim really close to the coastline.”

Original Article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/18/us/scientists-look-for-reasons-for-changed-whale-behavior.html?_r=1&ref=whalesandwhaling

Genetic Survey of Endangered Antarctic Blue Whales

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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 the study, the researchers examined 218 biopsy samples collected from living Antarctic blue whales throughout the Southern Ocean from 1990 to 2009, through a project coordinated by the International Whaling Commission.

The genetic survey revealed a "surprisingly high" level of diversity that may help the population slowly rebound from its catastrophic decimation by whalers.

(Credit: Photo by Paul Ensor, with support from Canon New Zealand Community Sponsorship Programme)

"Fewer than 400 Antarctic blue whales were thought to have survived when this population was protected from commercial hunting in 1966," noted Sremba, who conducted the research as part of her master's degree with the Marine Mammal Institute at OSU's Hatfield Marine Science Center. "But the exploitation period, though intense, was brief in terms of years, so the whales' long lifespans and overlapping generations may have helped retain the diversity."

"In fact," she added, "some of the Antarctic blue whales that survived the genetic bottleneck may still be alive today."

Prior to whaling Antarctic blue whales were thought to number about 250,000 individuals -- a total that dwindled to fewer than 400 animals by 1972 when blue whales were last killed by illegal Soviet whaling. Blue whales are thought to be the largest animals ever to have lived on Earth, said OSU's Scott Baker, associate director of the Marine Mammal Institute and an author on the study -- and the Antarctic blue whales were even larger than their cousins in other oceans.

"These animals are very long-lived -- maybe 70 to 100 years -- and they can grow to a length of more than 100 feet and weigh more than 330,000 pounds," he said. "There is a jawbone in a museum in South Africa that takes up most of the lobby. This is one reason they were so intensively exploited; they were the most valuable whales to hunt."

Despite their history of exploitation, little is known about modern-day movements of Antarctic blue whales, which are considered a separate subspecies -- differing in size and habitat use -- from the smaller "pygmy" blue whales, which live in more temperate regions of the Southern Hemisphere.

Through "microsatellite genotyping," or DNA fingerprinting, the PLoS ONE study was able to track some of the movements of individual Antarctic blue whales.

"We documented one female that traveled from one side of Antarctica to the other -- a minimum distance of more than 6,650 kilometers over a period of four years," said Sremba, who is now continuing her studies as a Ph.D. student in the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife at OSU. "It is the first documentation of individual movements by Antarctic blue whales since the end of the commercial whaling era."

Baker said the long distance movement of a few individuals was "somewhat surprising" in comparison to the evidence for genetic differences between areas of the Southern Ocean. On one hand, it is apparent that individual Antarctic blue whales are capable of traveling enormous distances in search of food.

"On the other hand," Baker said, "there seems to be some fidelity to the same feeding grounds as a result of a calf's early experience with its mother. This 'maternally directed' fidelity to migratory destinations seems to be widespread among great whales."

There is much, however, which scientists still don't know about Antarctic blue whales, Baker pointed out.

"This is a poorly understood species of whales, despite its history of exploitation," Baker said. "Only now are we developing the technology to study such a small number of whales spread across such a vast habitat."

The biopsy samples were collected during more than two decades of research cruises supervised by the International Whaling Commission, and with international scientists joining research vessels from the Japanese Ministry of Fisheries.

Now that their population is slowly recovering, future studies may focus on Antarctic blue whales' migration patterns, and the locations of their breeding and calving grounds.

 

From: Science Daily: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/03/120307184926.htm

We aren't the only ones Watching Whales. Great science!

Basketball-Sized Eyes Help Squids Play Defense ScienceDaily (Mar. 15, 2012) — Giant and colossal squids have eyes as big as basketballs, and a Duke scientist thinks he knows why. "They're most likely using their huge eyes to spot and escape their predators, sperm whales," said Duke biologist Sonke Johnsen.

Johnsen collaborated with a group of biologists to model, both physically and biologically, how and why a squid uses such a big eye. The team found that the design and size of the eye give squids the ability to see approaching sperm whales as they disturb bioluminescent organisms. The study appears in the March 15 Current Biology.

Big squids come in two types -- giant and colossal. They can grow to weights of five adult men put together, which is comparable to a large swordfish. But swordfish eyes are about the size of softballs, about 3 inches in diameter.

"It doesn't make sense a giant squid and swordfish are similar in size but the squid's eyes are proportionally much larger, three times the diameter and 27 times the volume," Johnsen said. "The question is why. Why do giant squid need such large eyes?"

To explain the squids' eye size, Johnsen and his collaborators first measured giant and colossal squid eyes using photos and captured animals. They also found data on the water clarity and amount of light at the ocean depths where the squid live -- typically 300 to 1000 meters. Using this information, the scientists began to mathematically model how the creatures' eyes would work and what they could see.

The team found that the squids' large eyes collect more light compared to animals of similar size but with smaller eyes. The extra light intake improves the squid's ability to detect small contrast differences under the dim conditions of the deep ocean, they argue. Johnsen said this ability doesn't matter much to the majority of deep-sea animals, which are looking at small objects that

 

But the boost in being able to sense contrast, which large eyes provide, is critical for detecting the low light differences of large, distant objects, the most important one being the bioluminescence stimulated by large animals such as approaching sperm whales, Johnsen said.

The team realized that sperm whales dive and swim continuously while emitting sonar to ping the squid. The cephalopods are deaf to the sonar, but the whale's wake triggers small organisms like plankton to produce light. Based on the design of the squid's eye, the animal could see this light, though contrast is low, over "freakishly long distances," about 120 meters -- the length of an American football field, Johnson said.

A giant squid found at Ranheim in Trondheim 2 October 1954 is being measured by the Professors Erling Sivertsen and Svein Haftorn. The specimen was measured to a total length of 9.2 meters. (Credit: NTNU Museum of Natural history and Archeaology, via Wikimedia Commons / Creative Commons license)

The contrast is low because water absorbs and scatters the light as it travels from the glowing plankton to the squid's eye. Bigger eyes mean seeing more of the faint light and predicting a predator's approach. But Johnson said a sperm whale's sonar would probably still detect the squid before it sees the light. As a result, the squid's basketball-sized eye, and the body to carry it, isn't necessarily for moving out of the whale's detection range, but for planning a well-timed escape.become too small to see before they fade away

"It's the predation by large, toothed whales that has driven the evolution of gigantism in the eyes of these squid," Johnsen said.

"I like the idea. The paper is speculative, however," said Michael Land, a University of Sussex zoologist who was not involved in the study. "Big eyes are always better, and the laws of growth that tend to make large vertebrates have relatively smaller eyes may not apply to cephalopods. Maybe they just grow that big," he said.

The scientists do extend their theory beyond squid to explain how ichthyosaurs, a type of swimming dinosaur, also may have used oversized eyes for detecting large targets, such as other marine dinosaurs, in the dim light of the deep ocean.

In spite of Land's reservations, the team's theory "may well be right," he said. "It is an idea that will be pretty hard to falsify, but a good one to have there in the melting pot."

The research is "really just a cool example" the team used to develop a more detailed model of how eyes in general work in the deep sea, at depths inaccessible to humans, Johnsen said. The team plans to publish its complete theory on underwater vision later this year.

Japan recalls its whaling fleet from the Southern Ocean

 

Last Updated: Fri, 9 Mar 2012 14:07:00 +1100

Japan's Fisheries agency has told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation the country's whaling fleet is heading home, after catching less than a third of its quota in the Antarctic.

That's despite the fleet getting an extra 31.9 million US dollars this year.

Speaking to the ABC in Tokyo the Japanese Fisheries Agency revealed the whaling fleet finished its hunt three days ago and is now heading for home.

Two minke whales are hauled into the Nisshin Maru factory ship in the Southern Ocean off Antarctica, January 2006. [ABC]

 

The agency also confirmed the fleet caught 266 minke whales, less than 30 % of its quota.

The whalers also harpooned a single fin whale, despite having a quota of 50.

The Sea Shepherd conservation group which harassed the fleet in the Antarctic says it's a massive victory for whales.

Despite receiving a special budget boost of 31.9 million US dollars to fend off Sea Shepherd, the Japanese whalers were repeatedly obstructed by the activists.

The Australian government says it welcomes Japan's decision to recall its whaling fleet from the Southern Ocean.

It says it remains opposed to commercial whaling, including Japan's so called "scientific" whaling program.

The Australian government says Australia will continue its efforts to achieve a permanent end to whaling through the International Court of Justice.

http://www.radioaustralianews.net.au/stories/201203/3449811.htm?desktop

Critically endangered whales sighted off Plymouth coast

A busy February for our friends at the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society!

When the phone rang at the Plymouth based office of Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS) on Wednesday, no one expected the caller to report whales visible from shore.  “At this time of the year, most of the calls to our office are people looking to adopt whales as holiday gifts – not to report whale sightings.” said Karen Urciuoli, WDCS’s Communications and Supporter Relations Manager.  Armed with cameras and binoculars, WDCS researchers headed to Ellisville Harbor State Park, where they were able to identify the animals as critically endangered North Atlantic right whales. With a population of less than 500 individuals, the North Atlantic right whale is one of the most endangered species on the planet.  Unfortunately human interactions, such as ship strikes and fishing gear entanglements, are the largest threat to the species. 

 

“Reporting where right whales are seen is critical to their protection” said Urciuoli “With so few remaining most people will never see one - it is amazing for me to have spotted some for the first time so close to home.”  For years WDCS and their allies have been leaders in the protection and research needed to support the revival of the right whale species.

Photo: Sea to Shore Alliance/NOAA Permit:15488

 

According to WDCS Biologist Monica Pepe “Cape Cod Bay is a Critical Habitat for right whales but they are typically seen here from January through May, not this time of year.”  Thanks to the alert supporters, who reported seeing whale spouts on the horizon, WDCS was able to confirm and log the presence of the endangered right whales with the National Marine Fisheries Service’s Sighting Advisory System.  Through this multi-institutional effort, ship traffic is alerted to the presence of right whales and asked to reduce speed as well as post spotters in areas where right whales have been seen. 

Learn more about local and global whale conservation efforts:

http://www.wdcs-na.org/story_details.php?select=296