Whale Encounter

Great video about an amazing photograph.

The Dolphin Gazette

Source: Dolphin Communication Project

After reading this issue of The Dolphin Gazette, you'll feel up to date on all of our research in The Bahamas - at Dolphin Encounters and off Bimini. You'll feel confident telling your co-workers about the SM2M, and you'll be telling every college student you know to sign up for our May field course. The list goes on, but it's probably better if you go ahead and read it yourself. Then forward it to all of your friends. Click here to download the final issue of 2011!

40 foot jumping humpback whale

A rare 40-million-year-old shark and whale encounter is preserved in stone.

Source: Discovery News

About 40 million years ago, a single shark in Egyptian waters snuck below a whale and attempted to rip it to shreds, but it wasn't entirely successful. The shark-bit and torn apart whale, described in the latest Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology, was recently discovered as a stonecutter in Italy prepared to slice into decorative limestone.

The whale, whose last moments were painful ones, turns out to represent a new species, Aegyptocetus tarfa, which lived on land as well as in the sea. Co-author Giovanni Bianucci of the University of Pisa's Department of Earth Sciences, told Discovery News it's probable that the shark attacked the whale as it was "diving, considering that the bite was on the abdomen"

Grey seal personalities affect pups

Source: BBC

Grey seals have different types of personality that affect the extent to which they guard and care for their young, according to new research.

Researchers from the universities of St Andrews and Durham found seal mothers were often unpredictable and adopted a wide variation of mothering styles.
Some were attentive to their pups while others were not, the experts found.

The study shows, for the first time, the extent of personality differences in marine mammals in the wild.

Animals: Rehabbed Loggerhead Turtle Released

Whales in the desert: Fossil bonanza poses mystery

(11-19) 21:01 PST SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) --

More than 2 million years ago, scores of whales congregating off the Pacific Coast of South America mysteriously met their end.

Maybe they became disoriented and beached themselves. Maybe they were trapped in a lagoon by a landslide or a storm. Maybe they died there over a period of a few millennia. But somehow, they ended up right next to one another, many just meters (yards) apart, entombed as the shallow sea floor was driven upward by geological forces and transformed into the driest place on the planet.
Today, they have emerged again atop a desert hill more than a kilometer (half a mile) from the surf, where researchers have begun to unearth one of the world's best-preserved graveyards of prehistoric whales.
Chilean scientists together with researchers from the Smithsonian Institution are studying how these whales, many of the them the size of buses, wound up in the same corner of the Atacama Desert.

"That's the top question," said Mario Suarez, director of the Paleontological Museum in the nearby town of Caldera, about 700 kilometers (440 miles) north of Santiago, the Chilean capital.

Hydroplaning Dolphins - Planet Earth - BBC

Ocean Mysteries with Jeff Corwin

Source: Monterey Bay Aquarium


Otterly Delightful! from Litton Weekend on Vimeo.
This week’s episode of “Ocean Mysteries with Jeff Corwin” was filmed at the Aquarium! In it, Jeff goes behind the scenes to learn about our sea otter conservation work. Episode #112 - Go West - Otters Airdate: 11/19/2011
More Info Here

Sharks And Seals: Amazing Underwater Images From National Geographic's New Book "Ocean Soul"

Click Here to read the article and view the amazing slide show.

 

Southern right whale. New Zealand, 2007

Swimming with Great Whites

Reporter Jupp Baron Kerckerinck swims with great white sharks near Isla Guadalupe in the open waters of the Pacific.



Source: CNN

Researchers are getting to know a population of Spotted Eagle Rays in Florida in efforts to protect them.

Cetacean Circus

From the Monterey Bay Aquarium

Visitors to the Monterey Bay Aquarium often ask, "Where are the whales in the aquarium?" We let them know how lucky we are to be right here on Monterey Bay, a hotspot for over 13 species of cetaceans -- whales and dolphins. At certain times of year they put on quite the show outside our windows.

This month is no exception. After entertaining the residents of Santa Cruz for a couple of weeks, humpback whales are now feeding off the beaches of Monterey and neighboring Seaside, Sand City and Marina. This weekend, without need for boat or binoculars, you could clearly witness the spectacle of feeding humpbacks as their huge mouths appeared without warning to engulf mouthfuls of schooling (and no doubt very surprised) fish!

It's a great way to end the humpback season and await the arrival of the gray whales on their southern migration later this month.
Meanwhile, in Hawaii humpback whales there have teamed up with some of their smaller cousins -- and who really knows what's going on. But it seems like the dolphins were having some fun: practicing some balancing skills, sliding down the whale rostrum. A regular jungle gym for dolphins, as fortuitously captured by photographer Lori Mazzuca!

Surely some of the smartest critters on the planet at work here and a pure delight for the humans who got to witness it!

Rare gray whale's route surprises scientist

This photo of

CAPTION

By Craig Hayslip, Oregon State University

A western pacific gray whale busily swimming south into California waters has thrown scientists for a loop. The critically-endangered species, with only about 130 known individuals left, was thought to winter near the South China Sea. Instead, the first tagged individual took off from Russia, swam across the Bering Sea and Gulf of Alaska to the coast of Oregon, and began working his way south.Dubbed "Flex," the male whale was lounging in Russia's Sea of Okhotsk near the Sakhalin Islands in October, where the whales have their summer feeding grounds. Scientists don't know where they breed but they thought they knew where they wintered.

Kayaker enjoys amazingly close encounter with humpback whales

A dauntingly close encounter this week involving a kayaker and two humpback whales in California's Monterey Bay is sure to fall under a believe-it-or-not type of scrutiny. But the encounter was captured by a reputable photographer and authenticated by several sources.

Paul Schraub, a freelance photographer hired as part of a marketing campaign by the Santa Cruz County Conference and Visitors Council, was shooting Tuesday from aboard a small boat when the humpbacks emerged vertically, surface lunge-feeding on small bait fish, directly next to the kayaker (see video report below).

Surfing Dolphins

Source: BBC

Sad News: Death of a Great White Shark

Source: Monterey Bay Aquarium 

We’re saddened to announce that the young great white shark we released on October 25 off the coast of southern California has died. This is a very difficult day for all of us at the Monterey Bay Aquarium, and for everyone who saw and cared about this animal.

Based on the shark’s behavior and overall condition prior to release, our white shark team had every confidence that he would do well back in the wild — as was the case with five other young great whites released from the aquarium.

Unfortunately, according to data from the tracking tag he carried, the shark died shortly after he was released.

Surfer has a close-call with lunging Humpback Whale

A woman on a surfboard and two people aboard a kayak were nearly engulfed by a humpback whale that charged out of the water, its mouth agape, just a few feet away. Barb Roettger's video of the amazing encounter, which occurred near Santa Cruz, Calif., was posted Wednesday. The incident is one of several recent close calls in the area, where a small pod of humpback whales has been surface lunge-feeding on anchovies unusually close to shore. They've become a major draw for kayakers and boaters and at least one kayaker has been capsized, and a sailboat was struck by a whale. This circus atmosphere has led to an enforcement presence in an attempt to keep people at a safe distance from the potentially dangerous leviathans.





Source: Grind TV