Humpback whales rush to stop hungry orcas from hunting in CA. Celebration followed

www.sacbee.com

Boaters called the moment a “once in a lifetime trip.

Whale Songs Obey Basic Rules of Human Languages

Scientific American

Humpback whales learn their haunting melodies in much the same way humans learn words

How Viking-Age Hunters Took Down the Biggest Animal on Earth

Hakai Magazine

New research suggests that medieval Icelanders were scavenging and likely even hunting blue whales long before industrial whaling technology. In the fall of 1385, according to a 17th-century Icelandic text, a man named Ólafur went fishing off the northwestern coast of Iceland.

An All-Female Crew Sailed 1,000 Miles in a Traditional Voyaging Canoe to Help Save Humpback Whales

Smithsonian Magazine

Whales not only hold cultural and spiritual significance for the Māori, the Indigenous Polynesian people of New Zealand, but they are also often seen as ancestors. “Whales symbolize strength, wisdom and resilience, and they are deeply respected as guardians of the ocean,” says Takoko.

The Whale Who Went AWOL

On April 26, 2019, a beluga whale appeared near Tufjord, a village in northern Norway, immediately alarming fishermen in the area. Belugas in that part of the world typically inhabit the remote Arctic and are rarely spotted as far south as the Norwegian mainland.

How First Contact With Whale Civilization Could Unfold

The Atlantic

If we can learn to speak their language, what should we say? One night last winter, over drinks in downtown Los Angeles, the biologist David Gruber told me that human beings might someday talk to sperm whales.

For generations, killer whales and First Nations hunted whales together. Now we suspect the orca group has gone extinct

The Conversation

For generations, the Thaua people worked with killer whales to hunt large whales in the water of Twofold Bay, on the southern coast of New South Wales. Killer whales – commonly known as orcas – would herd their giant prey into shallower waters where hunters could spear them.

Can We Talk to Whales?

The New Yorker

Ah, the world! Oh, the world!—“Moby-Dick.” David Gruber began his almost impossibly varied career studying bluestriped grunt fish off the coast of Belize. He was an undergraduate, and his job was to track the fish at night. He navigated by the stars and slept in a tent on the beach.

Gray whales were nicknamed ‘devil fish’ for fighting back when harpooned by whalers. Now they approach boats and let humans pet them, baffling scientists.

Business Insider

Gray whales put up such a fight against whalers and their boats they earned the nickname "devil fish." Today, in the same places where the whales were hunted to the brink of extinction just decades ago, they swim right up to boats, enchanting and even befriending the people in them.

What Medieval Manuscripts Reveal About the Hidden History of Whales

Smithsonian Magazine

The creature was enormous. Sailors said it “looked more like an island than a fish.” When feeding, according to a 13th-century Old Norse manuscript, the beast, known as the hafgufa, would rest with its mouth open wide, luring in unsuspecting fish, then snap its jaws shut to capture them.

North American lobster industry confronts ‘ropeless’ traps after whale entanglements

Reuters

MONHEGAN ISLAND, Maine, June 7 (Reuters) – An emerging technology to fish for lobsters virtually ropeless to prevent whale entanglements is exciting conservationists, but getting a frigid reception from harvesters worried it will drive them out of business and upend their way of life.

Is Papahānaumokuākea lost breeding ground for endangered humpback whales?

| Is Papahānaumokuākea lost breeding ground for endangered humpback whales?

Humpback whale mother and calf. Photo: NOAA under Permit #18786-03New research by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and other scientists raises an important question: Does more than one population of humpback whales occupy the Hawaiian archipelago? Whales are born to travel.

Who’s using vocal fry in the ocean? Dolphins, orcas and other whaaaaales.

Dolphins, pilot whales and sperm whales use echolocation clicks to hunt and subdue their prey. But the animals, known as toothed whales, also produce other sounds for social communication, like grunts and high-pitched whistles.

These Mythical Sea Monsters May Have Been Whales With Unusual Dining Habits

Smithsonian Magazine

According to 13th-century Norse texts, when the great fish “hafgufa” goes to feed, it belches some food, then stretches its massive mouth wide. The sea monster remains still, mouth agape, as fish come to nibble on the food, not knowing that they rest in the jaws of the behemoth.

Bones, Bones: How to Articulate a Whale

Longreads

I’m walking with my dog and the phone rings. It’s Jessie Huggins, stranding coordinator for Cascadia Research Collective. “A whale washed ashore an hour south of Seattle,” she says. “Do you want it?” I’ve been waiting two years for her call.

World-First Map Exposes Growing Dangers Along Whale Superhighways

A new global report by WWF and the marine mammal science community calls for urgent action to safeguard whales amid mounting threats along their migratory routes.

The Enormous Hole That Whaling Left Behind

The Atlantic

In the 20th century, the largest animals that have ever existed almost stopped existing. Baleen whales—the group that includes blue, fin, and humpback whales—had long been hunted, but as whaling went industrial, hunts became massacres.