Dolphins and Whales News

June 15, 2024

Top Headlines

Dolphins With Elevated Mercury Levels in Florida and Georgia

June 13, 2024 — Scientists found elevated mercury levels in dolphins in the U.S. Southeast. The highest levels were found in dolphins in Florida's St. Joseph and Choctawhatchee Bays. Researchers study dolphins because they are considered a sentinel species for ...

Pacific Coast Gray Whales Have Gotten 13% Shorter in the Past 20-30 Years, Oregon State Study Finds

June 12, 2024 — Gray whales that spend their summers feeding in the shallow waters off the Pacific Northwest coast have undergone a significant decline in body length since around the year 2000, a new study ...

Flapping Frequency of Birds, Insects, Bats and Whales Described by Universal Equation

June 5, 2024 — A single universal equation can closely approximate the frequency of wingbeats and fin strokes made by birds, insects, bats and whales, despite their different body sizes and wing shapes, researchers ...

Future Climate Impacts Put Whale Diet at Risk

May 22, 2024 — A new study predicts future climate change impacts could disrupt the krill-heavy diet that humpback whales in the southern hemisphere ...

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A Rise in Sea Urchins and Related Damage to Kelp Forests Impacts Oregon's Gray Whales and Their Food

May 21, 2024 — A recent boom in the purple sea urchin population off the southern Oregon Coast appears to have had an indirect and negative impact on the gray ...

How Neighboring Whale Families Learn Each Other's Vocal Style

May 16, 2024 — Researchers have developed a method to investigate sperm whale communication by determining their vocal style, finding that groups living in close proximity can develop similar styles to each ...

Killer Whales Breathe Just Once Between Dives, Study Confirms

May 15, 2024 — A new study has confirmed a long-held assumption: that orcas take just one breath between dives. The researchers used drone footage and biological data from tags suction-cupped to 11 northern and ...

Young Whale's Journey Highlights Threats Facing Ocean Animals

May 14, 2024 — A young whale's journey across the Mediterranean highlights the many threats facing ocean animals, researchers ...

Where Have All the Right Whales Gone?

Apr. 12, 2024 — Marine researchers have mapped the density of one of the most endangered large whale species worldwide, the North Atlantic right whale, using new data to help avoid right whales' harmful exposure to ...

Toothed Whale Echolocation Organs Evolved from Jaw Muscles

Apr. 8, 2024 — Genetic analysis finds evidence suggesting that acoustic fat bodies in the heads of toothed whales were once the muscles and bone marrow of the ...

Caller ID of the Sea: Tagging Whale Communication and Behavior

Mar. 25, 2024 — Biologists use a novel method of simultaneous acoustic tagging to gain insights into the link between whale communication and ...

Scientists Weigh Up Current Status of Blue Whale Populations Around the World

Mar. 20, 2024 — The largest living animal, the blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) which averages about 27 meters in length, has slowly recovered from whaling only to ...

Entanglements of Humpback Whales in Fish Farms Rare -- And Naivety Could Be to Blame

Mar. 21, 2024 — The first study of humpback whale entanglements in B.C. aquaculture facilities found eight over 13 years, with the curiosity of young whales a ...

Ancient Giant Dolphin Discovered in the Amazon

Mar. 20, 2024 — Measuring between 3 to 3.5 meters, 16 million years old: Paleontologists have announced the discovery of a new species of freshwater dolphin in the Peruvian Amazon region. Surprisingly, its closest ...

Killer Whales Use Specialized Hunting Techniques to Catch Marine Mammals in the Open Ocean

Mar. 20, 2024 — Killer whales foraging in deep submarine canyons off the coast of California represent a distinct subpopulation that uses specialized hunting techniques to catch marine mammals, researchers ...

Shark-Bitten Orcas in the Northeastern Pacific Could Be a New Population of Killer Whale

Mar. 15, 2024 — Researchers believe a group of killer whales observed hunting marine mammals including sperm whales, as well as a sea turtle, in the open ocean off California and Oregon could be a new population. ...

Menopause Explains Why Some Female Whales Live So Long

Mar. 13, 2024 — Females of some whale species have evolved to live drastically longer lives so they can care for their families, new research ...

Rope Entanglement Cause of Low Breeding Rates in Right Whales, Analysis Finds

Mar. 13, 2024 — New findings show the severe impact of fishing gear entanglements on the survival of critically endangered North Atlantic right whales, with every injury from entanglements impacting population ...

Orcas Demonstrating They No Longer Need to Hunt in Packs to Take Down the Great White Shark

Mar. 2, 2024 — An orca (killer whale) has been observed, for the first-ever time, individually consuming a great white shark -- and within just two ...

Slimming Down a Colossal Fossil Whale

Feb. 29, 2024 — A 30 million year-old fossil whale may not be the heaviest animal of all time after all, according to a new analysis by paleontologists. The new analysis puts Perucetus colossus back in the same ...

Climate Change Could Push Bowhead Whales to Cross Paths With Shipping Traffic

Feb. 21, 2024 — The population of bowhead whales that migrates between the Bering and Beaufort Seas each year is a conservation success story, with today's population nearing -- if not exceeding -- ...

Toxic Elements Found in Stranded Whales, Dolphins Over 15 Years

Feb. 21, 2024 — Researchers evaluated the prevalence, concentration and tissue distribution of essential and non-essential trace elements, including heavy metal toxicants in tissue (blubber, kidney, liver, skeletal ...

Baleen Whales Evolved a Unique Larynx to Communicate but Cannot Escape Human Noise

Feb. 21, 2024 — The iconic baleen whales, such as the blue, gray and humpback whale, depend on sound for communication in the vast marine environment where they live. Now researchers have for the first time found ...

Surprising Behavior in One of the Least Studied Mammals in the World

Feb. 9, 2024 — Beaked whales are among the least studied mammals in the world. Now, a new study reveals surprising information about the Baird's beaked whale ...

Humpback Whales Move Daytime Singing Offshore

Jan. 24, 2024 — New research revealed a daily pattern wherein humpback whales move their singing away from shore throughout the day and return to the nearshore in the ...

Whale-SETI: Groundbreaking Encounter With Humpback Whales Reveals Potential for Nonhuman Intelligence Communication

Dec. 12, 2023 — A team of scientists had a close encounter with a non-human (aquatic) intelligence. The Whale-SETI team has been studying humpback whale communication systems in an effort to develop intelligence ...

Vulnerability of England's Only Resident Bottlenose Dolphins

Nov. 29, 2023 — New research has provided a detailed examination of England's bottlenose dolphin population's existence and the challenges it faces from human activities and environmental factors on a ...

WhaleVis Turns More Than a Century of Whaling Data Into an Interactive Map

Nov. 16, 2023 — A team has created an interactive dashboard called WhaleVis, which lets users map data on global whale catches and whaling routes from 1880 to 1986. Scientists can compare this historical data and ...

Endangered Whales Live in Area Earmarked for Gas Exploration

Oct. 26, 2023 — Endangered whales and dolphins live year-round in an area of the Mediterranean earmarked for oil and gas exploration, new research ...

Whaling Wiped out Far More Fin Whales Than Previously Thought

Oct. 17, 2023 — Whaling in the 20th century destroyed 99% of the Eastern North Pacific fin whale breeding population. Because there is enough genetic diversity, current conservation measures should help the ...

Gray Whales Experience Major Population Swings as a Result of Arctic Conditions

Oct. 12, 2023 — Dynamic and changing Arctic Ocean conditions have likely caused three major mortality events in the eastern North Pacific gray whale population since the ...

Killer Whales' Diet More Important Than Location for Pollutant Exposure

Oct. 11, 2023 — Both elegant and fierce, killer whales are some of the oceans' top predators, but even they can be exposed to environmental pollution. Now, in the largest study to date on North Atlantic killer ...

Evolutionary Secrets of 'Old Tom' and the Killer Whales of Eden Revealed by Genetic Study

Oct. 11, 2023 — Evolutionary biologists have for the first time decoded the genetic lineage of a famous killer whale and a pod that once worked alongside whale hunters off the coast of Australia. In the Australian ...

DNA from Discarded Whale Bones Suggests Loss of Genetic Diversity Due to Commercial Whaling

Oct. 2, 2023 — Commercial whaling in the 20th century decimated populations of large whales but also appears to have had a lasting impact on the genetic diversity of today’s surviving whales, new research ...