Whales . . . Should Cruisers Care ?

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by cat man do

Says who? [“Sea Sheppard”, which is supposed to be the hero ship, in the series, Is run by a foolish captain and crew and I believe they ultimately are counterproductive with their over aggressive and reckless tactics"]
They are at least doing something and I am happy to support them.
Dave

In addition to Shrew’s list (#149):
Paul Watson, himself, acknowledges that Sea Shepherd is a “vigilante” group, whose primary tactic is ramming ships, at sea.
➥ https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2.../neptunes-navy


“Sea Sheppard”, which is supposed to be the hero ship, in the series, Is run by a foolish captain and crew and I believe they ultimately are counterproductive with their over aggressive and reckless tactics.

Not any more.
Paul Watson was ousted, from the Sea Shepherd conservationist organization he founded, in July{?} of 2022.

➥ https://captainpaulwatsonpapers.com/...ars-continued/

➥ https://www.voanews.com/a/eco-warrio...s/6848934.html

[GordMay]

A team, studying whale communication, had a 20-minute "conversation", with an Alaskan humpback.
The encounter, documented in a recent issue of the journal PeerJ [1], is described as the first communicative exchange, between humans and whales, in the humpback "language."

The team played a humpback greeting signal, via an underwater speaker, and an adult female, named Twain, responded by approaching and circling the team's boat, according to the study.[1]
She responded "in a conversational style" to each recorded message the team played, in an "acoustic exchange" that lasted 20 minutes.
Twain responded to each playback call, and matched the interval variations between each signal, which was regarded as a successful back-and-forth communicative exchange.

A second upcoming paper, by the team, will delve into humpback whale communication methods that are not sound-related — like bubble rings made in the presence of, and possibly for, humans.

Their findings give scientists a better understanding of how to detect and interpret signals from outer space.

Another recent study [2] found that sperm whales use "language" techniques, that mirror aspects of human speech.
Researchers, at the University of California, Berkeley examined the acoustic properties of whale "clicks", that were found to be "on many levels analogous to human vowels and diphthongs," they said, in a paper [2] published as a draft by OSF Preprints, on Tuesday, December 5.

The study [2] created a "visualization" of observed techniques, using data from nearly 4,000 sperm whale codas, recorded with hydrophones, between 2014 and 2018.
They pinpointed two distinct coda patterns, that appeared across the whales: the "A" and "I" vowels. These sounds were "actively exchanged", in dialogue, during whale conversations, the study said.

Clicks in these codas are "likely culturally learned," and differ from echolocation clicks, which are used to navigate the ocean, according to the research.

More about: “Whale-SETI: Groundbreaking Encounter with Humpback Whales Reveals Potential for Non-Human Intelligence Communication”
➥ https://www.seti.org/press-release/w...n-intelligence

[1] “Interactive bioacoustic playback as a tool for detecting and exploring nonhuman intelligence: “conversing” with an Alaskan humpback whale” ~ by Brenda McCowan et al
➥ https://peerj.com/articles/16349/

[2] “Vowels and Diphthongs in Sperm Whales” ~ by Gasper Beguset al
➥ https://osf.io/preprints/osf/285cs

[deblen]

Wow! Very interesting! Thanks/L

[deblen]

Nine births : https://ca.news.yahoo.com/9-north-at...100000335.html

[GordMay]

Stranded Orca dies


A female killer whale, that beached near the village of Zeballos, on northern Vancouver Island died on Saturday, despite efforts by the community, to push the mammal back into the water.
The female orca, a 14 year old Bigg's killer whale #T109A3, was stranded, in the Little Espinosa Inlet, about six kilometres southwest of the village, at low tide, while a 21 month old calf swam nearby.
The calf, which remained near its deceased mother, faces an uncertain future. Fortunately, it's making a lot of loud calls, and if it can swim out, on its own, at high tide ... it can continue to call, and hopefully, find its extended family, and be adopted.

CBC Report ➥ https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/1.7154253

Video ➥ https://www.facebook.com/tracy.harry...76435721159807

Marine Education & Research Society [MERS] Updates
➥ https://www.facebook.com/photo?fbid=...77.-2207520000

[GordMay]

Stranded killer whale was pregnant, necropsy shows
Efforts still underway to save orphaned calf, named “kwiisaiʔis”, or [roughly] 'Brave Little Hunter'.
More ➥ https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/briti...nant-1.7156372

[GordMay]

A rescue team working to coax a stranded killer whale calf from a lagoon off northern Vancouver Island is prepared to change tactics to save its life, including the possibility of lifting the orca out to the open ocean, says a Fisheries Department marine mammal co-ordinator.
More ➥ https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/briti...scue-1.7157812

[GordMay]

Whales, and why menopause evolved
Menopause is a rare phenomenon, only known to occur in a few mammalian species. Several of these species are toothed whales, such as killer whales, beluga whales, narwhals, and Humans (Homo sapiens).
But why menopause evolved, multiple times, in toothed whales [and humans], has been a long-standing research question.
To answer it, a team examined the life history of whales, with and without menopause, and how this affected the number of offspring and ‘grandoffspring’. [1]
Their results suggest that menopause allows older females to help younger generations, so that grandmothers could help care for their families longer, without reproductively competing with their own offspring [daughters].

[1] “The evolution of menopause in toothed whales” ~ By Samuel Ellis et al
➥ https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07159-9

See also: “Killer whales have menopause. Now scientists think they know why”
➥

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JBmxjeqSAio

And: The “Grandmother Hypothesis”, first posited by the US evolutionary biologist George Williams, in 1957.
➥ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grandmother_hypothesis
➥ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/scien...ion-180976665/

[GordMay]

Orcas are, actually, two species

Orcas have long been categorized as a single species, although some scientists have questioned this classification, in recent decades.
Now, researchers propose [1] that two orca populations, in the eastern North Pacific Ocean, are actually two distinct species.

In a study [1], published March 27, in the journal Royal Society Open Science, the scientists compared two groups of orcas [Orcinus orca], resident and Bigg's killer whales, and cited a number of distinct differences.

For example, resident killer whales have more rounded dorsal fins, and are known for being part of tight-knit pods, that prey on salmon, and other fish.
Bigg's killer whales [AKA: transients], by contrast, have dorsal fins that are more pointed, and straight. They also travel in smaller groups, than resident orcas, and predominantly hunt larger animals, such as seals, and other whale species. The latter is named after the late Canadian scientist, Michael Bigg, who was the first person to describe differences between the two groups. [2]

Not only are the groups distinct, in their behaviors and diets, but genetic data, collected from decades' worth of previous studies, show that the orcas "likely diverged" approximately 300,000 years ago, and "come from opposite ends of the killer whale family tree," according to NOAA. [2]

[1] “Revised taxonomy of eastern North Pacific killer whales (Orcinus orca): Bigg’s and resident ecotypes deserve species status” ~ by Phillip A. Morin et al
➥ https://royalsocietypublishing.org/d...98/rsos.231368

[2] “New Research Reveals Full Diversity of Killer Whales as Two Species Come into View on Pacific Coast” ~ NOAA
➥ https://www.fisheries.noaa.gov/featu...-pacific-coast

[GordMay]

Trapped orca rescue called off, for now
Members of the Ehattesaht First Nation, Fisheries and Oceans Canada and the Vancouver Aquarium failed in their first attempt to rescue the Orca [Biggs Killer Whale] calf [“Kwiisahi?is”, or ‘Brave Little Hunter’] trapped in a Vancouver Island lagoon. The rescue team says they will regroup, and plan their next steps.
➥ https://youtu.be/V97Jgc4wJqM

Up close with orca rescue team in B.C.
➥ https://youtu.be/JUsznBPPmGw

Very smart’ B.C. orca calf evades rescuers, forcing switch in tactics
➥ https://vancouversun.com/news/local-...c-killer-whale

[GordMay]

“Why Are So Many Gray Whales Washing Up On Shore?” ~ by Maiya May
➥ https://youtu.be/gWyxY_Bhrt4

From Mexico all the way up to Alaska, hundreds of gray whales have been washing up ashore. The deaths peaked in 2019, and the numbers were so significant that it led scientists to call it an Unusual Mortality Event (UME) which kicked research into gear. Scientists scrambled to figure out what was going on, and what they found turned their previous understanding on its head. This episode of Weathered explores gray whales' complex food web and how what’s happening in the Arctic may just affect all of us.

“Boom-bust cycles in gray whales associated with dynamic and changing Arctic conditions” ~ by Joshua D. Stewart et al
➥ https://www.science.org/doi/abs/10.1126/science.adi1847

Originally Posted by Sacha Vignieri

“Editor’s summary:
Environments are responding to human-induced climate warming in a variety of ways, not all of them expected. Such changes can have large impacts on species and ecosystems. Responses to such changes may be most obvious in shorter-lived species, but Stewart et al. show that even some of the largest animals on the planet are susceptible to relatively minor changes (see the Perspective by Read*). Specifically, they looked across a 50-year database on gray whale population estimates and found clear evidence of rapid population increases and declines in response to changing prey biomass and ice cover. —Sacha Vignieri ...”

* “The ecology of whales in a changing climate” ~ by Andrew J. Read
➥ https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adk4244

[GordMay]

More than 100 long-finned pilot whales, that beached on the western Australian coast, Thursday, have been returned to sea, while 29 died [including 1 baby] on the shore.
The four pods, of about 160 pilot whales, were spread across 500 metres of beach, at Toby's Inlet, near Dunsborough, about 250km (155 miles) south of Perth.
Video ➥ https://youtu.be/uKkZobeOrcQ

The largest beaching of whales, in Western Australia, took place in Dunsborough, in 1996, and involved 320 long-finned pilot whales. All but 20 of the animals were rescued, and escorted back into deeper waters.

[GordMay]

“Brave Little Hunter” [‘k iisa iʔis’] swims over sandbar, out of lagoon, on her own, at high tide, early Friday morning, after being trapped for a month.

The Orca calf was later seen in Espinosa Inlet, and a team followed her, as she moved toward Esperanza Inlet, and the open ocean. If she is able to find her pod, she will very likely be adopted by her family members.

Officials are now putting protective measures in place, to ensure there is no contact between k iisa iʔis and other people, or boats. They have asked the public to stay away from the area.

➥ https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/1.7187065

➥ https://www.cbc.ca/player/play/video/9.4212726