World Whale Day

[GordMay]

World Whale Day is an international celebration of whales. and other marine mammals.
World Whale Day is observed on the third Sunday of February, and, this year, World Whale Day falls on February 18, 2024.

World Whale Day, was founded in Maui, Hawaii, in 1980, to honour humpback whales, which swim off of the coast of this tropical island. This day began as an idea, by Greg Kauffman, founder of the Pacific Whale Foundation, to raise awareness, about the threat of extinction, faced by humpback whales.
What started with raising awareness for humpback whales, in Hawaii, has since gone beyond that, to encompass all whales [& marine mammals], everywhere.

While whales belong to the cetaceans order, there are two suborders - baleen [eg: humpbacks, bowheads, & blue whales, etc] and toothed [narwhales, belugas, orcas & sperm whales, etc]. Bristles replace the teeth on baleen whales. Made of keratin, the bristles act as a filter collecting krill and other small invertebrates from the sea.

Eating the smallest food in the ocean doesn't make the smallest whales. The blue whale (a baleen whale) grows to 98 feet in length, and is the largest whale [largest animal ever known to exist] on Earth. However, the smallest whale, the toothed dwarf sperm whale, grows to between 6 feet 7 inches and 8 feet 10 inches.

More about ➥ https://happyeconews.com/world-whale-day/

WDC, Whale and Dolphin Conservation
There are around 90 species of whales, dolphins and porpoises, known collectively as "cetaceans". From the enormous blue whale to the tiny vaquita and Hector's dolphin, you will find information and amazing facts about many of these incredible creatures in our species guide.
➥ https://us.whales.org/whales-dolphin...iAAEgLEwfD_BwE

[GordMay]

Whales struggle to hear each other.
Baleen whales are physically limited, in how deep they can go, to sing, so they're often competing with boat and ship noise

New research [1], into how baleen whales [including the blue, humpback, & bowhead whales, etc] make low, vibrating sounds, is also highlighting the serious dangers, these animals face, from ocean noise pollution.

Compared to their toothed cousins, like orcas or belugas, baleen whales use a novel method, to make these rumbling baritones [10 to 30 Hz], essentially taking their vocal organs, and rotating them, to vibrate against an inner "cushion", researchers say [1].

They make these, very low frequency sounds, very close to the surface, which is exactly where we make boating noise, in exactly the same frequency range, and also on the surface.
These sounds can't be made, for prolonged periods of time, in deeper parts of the ocean, because of the whales' physiology. Farther down, the air is just too compressed, to use their vocal organs effectively. Thus, they can't escape the surface noise, created by boats & ships, by going way down deep.

Beyond mating, it's long been known that ship noise impacts whales [both baleen and toothed], and their ability to orient themselves, locate prey, and avoid dangers.

[1] “Evolutionary novelties underlie sound production in baleen whales” ~ by Coen P. H. Elemans et al
➥ https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07080-1

Video [1:45] ➥ http://www.cbc.ca/player/play/2310946883725

See also:
“Dangerous delays on Canada’s Ocean Noise Strategy” ~ WWF Canada
➥ https://wwf.ca/media-releases/wwf-ca...oise-strategy/

[GordMay]

7,000 Humpback Whales May Have Starved to Death During the ‘Blob’ Heatwave

A new study [1] says the marine heatwave, of 2014-2016, known as "The Blob", correlates with a 20% decline in the population of North Pacific humpback whales.

Forty-six organizations, along with more than 4,000 citizen scientists*, contributed to the study, believed to be the largest-ever photo-identification dataset assembled, for a species of cetacean.

The study [1], published recently in the journal Royal Society Open Science, found an estimated 33,500 humpbacks in the North Pacific, in 2012, with a population growing nearly six per cent per year, since 2002.

From 2012 to 2021, however, the study [1] found an estimated population decline of nearly 7,000 whales, likely linked to the heat wave, leaving 26,662 humpbacks alive.

More about ➥ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart...ave-180983870/

[1] “Bellwethers of change: population modelling of North Pacific humpback whales from 2002 through 2021 reveals shift from recovery to climate response” ~ by Ted Cheeseman et al
➥ https://royalsocietypublishing.org/d...98/rsos.231462

* Happywhale engages citizen scientists to identify individual marine mammals ➥ https://happywhale.com/home