From a NOAA Press release: NOAA-trained team hopeful strategic cut freed an entangled humpback near Tracy Arm NOAA Fisheries marine mammal entanglement experts are hopeful that a humpback whale is free, after a successful operation to cut the anchor line it was stuck in Sunday afternoon near the mouth of Tracy Arm. The humpback had [...]
From a NOAA Press Release: June 22, 2017 Marjorie Mooney-Seus Julie Speegle Beluga whales in Cook Inlet. Credit: Chris Garner, U.S. Army JBER NOAA Fisheries released today its biennial population estimate for the endangered Cook Inlet beluga whale. Scientists determined that the population size is between 279 and 386 animals, with a most likely estimate [...]
Lack of sea ice near Savoonga, Alaska and Lower 48 weather By Ned Rozell [fusion_dropcap]L[/fusion_dropcap]ast month, villagers in Savoonga landed a bowhead whale. Before 2017, in every January people can remember, sea ice surrounded St. Lawrence Island, locking it in for the winter. Boat-launching and whale-taking were not possible. Now, the disc of ice chunks [...]
Harmful Toxins Detected in Alaska Marine Mammals From a NOAA Press Release: [fusion_dropcap]T[/fusion_dropcap]oxins from harmful algae are present in Alaskan marine food webs in high enough concentrations to be detected in marine mammals from Southeast Alaska to the Arctic Ocean, including whales, walruses, sea lions, seals, porpoises and sea otters, according to The next link/button [...]
Scientists conduct full necropsy in quest to determine what killed killer whale From a NOAA press release: [fusion_dropcap]A[/fusion_dropcap] collaborative team of scientists is investigating what caused the death of a female killer whale found on a beach in Portage Bay, Kupreanof Island, northwest of Petersburg. The team was able to reach the 17.4 foot long [...]
Deaths of large whales in Gulf of Alaska an unusual mortality event - NOAA Via NOAA press release [fusion_dropcap]N[/fusion_dropcap]OAA is declaring the recent deaths of 30 large whales in the western Gulf of Alaska an "unusual mortality event," triggering a focused, expert investigation into the cause. An unusual mortality event is a stranding event that [...]
Ancient whalers leave their mark on the north By Ned Rozell [fusion_dropcap]T[/fusion_dropcap]he high arctic is one of the farthest places from most of the 6 billion people on Earth, but Canadian researchers have found that the far north holds some of the oldest evidence of human impact on a lake’s ecosystem. John Smol, of Queen’s [...]
Resurrecting Leviathan: Reconstructing Sperm Whale Catches in the North Pacific By Phillip J. Clapham and Yulia V. Ivashchenko [fusion_dropcap]T[/fusion_dropcap]o anyone who has ever seen one, the sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) is among the more bizarre-looking animals on our planet. With its wrinkled skin, giant head, and large teeth arrayed in an oddly underslung jaw, it [...]
Bowhead Whales May Be the World's Oldest Mammals By Ned Rozell [fusion_dropcap]W[/fusion_dropcap]hile helping Alaska Native whale hunter Billy Adams cut sections of blubber from a bowhead whale, Biologist Craig George pressed his knife into a deep scar in the whale's skin. Bowhead whales were hunted by commercial whalers for over four centuries, beginning in the [...]
Bubble Net Feeding by Humpback Whales in Alaska Bubble Net Feeding in Alaska Occasionally, humpback whales in Southeast Alaska will feed in coordinated groups using bubbles to trap fish at the water’s surface. This behavior is known as bubble net feeding. Bubble net feeding involves anywhere from 4-20 whales all working together to herd schooling [...]
