Cetacean Culture

[Nosmo King]

I am reminded of a fact i only heard recently regarding the 'right whale' and the reason it got its name, sadly this was due to the fact that it was the right whale to hunt, being slow and curious and that it floated after death.

https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/rtwhale.html

 

[ramonmercado]

Their porpoise in surrounding him may have been to keep him alive.

A swimmer missing for almost 12 hours off the Irish coast was rescued after a lifeboat crew's attention was drawn to a pod of dolphins.

The RNLI volunteers spotted the exhausted man among the dolphins in the sea near Castlegregory in County Kerry. Conservationists have now identified the animals as being from a population of bottlenose dolphins that feed and breed in Scotland's Moray Firth. The rescue was sparked by the discovery of the swimmer's clothes on a beach.

The RNLI and coastguard teams carried out a search into Sunday night.

The RNLI said: "At 20:30, the volunteer lifeboat crew with Fenit RNLI spotted a pod of dolphins and a head above the water about two-and-a-half miles off Castlegregory beach. The casualty was conscious and immediately recovered onto the lifeboat and brought Fenit Harbour to be taken to hospital."

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-highlands-islands-58328587

 

[ramonmercado]

Greedy gits.

As the largest animals that have ever existed, whales should have a hearty appetite.

But until now, researchers never realized how big that appetite really is. A new study reveals baleen whales—14 species that filter feed using comblike mouth structures—eat, on average, three times as much as previously thought. That might seem like bad news for their prey, but the study also suggests the whales are doing the ocean a favor: By lunging after prey and filtering water, they act like plows churning nutrients through small patches of sea. And by feeding at the bottom of the ocean and defecating at the surface, they cycle nutrients through the entire water column.

“Whales have a value beyond just being amazing,” says Shirel Kahane-Rapport, a marine biologist at California State University, Fullerton, who was a Ph.D. student at Stanford University’s Hopkins Marine Station (HMS) when she participated in the study.

HMS ecologist Matthew Savoca was trying to figure out how much plastic whales eat when he realized he first had to answer a much more basic question: How much do they eat, period? He was shocked to realize only estimates existed, and those estimates were rough, based on the stomach contents of beached or killed whales—or metabolic calculations.

https://www.science.org/content/article/baleen-whales-eat-three-times-much-scientists-thought

 

[cycleboy2]

Sighting of a very rare white sperm whale - as immortalised in Moby-Dick - off the coast of Jamaica. They're usually grey, black or brown and this is likely to be the result of albinism or leucism. It's been too far away to tell so far.

https://www.theguardian.com/environ...whale-rarest-animals-captured-on-film-jamaica

 

[EnolaGaia]

Whale watchers off Western Australia observed orcas approach an entangled humpback whale and seemingly act to untangle the humpback from part of the ropes it was dragging. Now the watchers are wondering if this could have been deliberate altruistic behavior - something orcas aren't known for doing.

Pod of orcas frees a humpback whale from certain death. Was it intentional?

In a strange encounter off the coast of western Australia, a pod of orcas seems to free a humpback whale from a rope entangling its tail. But were they really trying to rescue it?

It isn't clear whether the orcas (Orcinus orca) were trying to manipulate the rope or why they approached the humpback in the first place. Observers with Whale Watch Western Australia who caught part of the interaction on drone video initially thought the orcas might attack the hobbled humpback. Whale watchers have witnessed orcas brutally attack humpbacks before. As pack hunters, orcas can take down prey much larger than themselves, though they typically target humpback calves and yearlings rather than full-grown adults. When attacking whales, orcas often try to grab the whales' flippers, turn them over, and hold them under in order to drown them.

For whatever reason, though, the humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) escaped unscathed on Jan. 10, Whale Watch Western Australia staffers wrote in a description accompanying their video footage. ...

Observers on the whale-watching boat soon realized that the whale was in bad shape. It was scrawny and covered with sea lice, parasites that feed on the blood and skin of fish and whales. A snarl of rope was tangled around the whale's tail. It seemed certain that the whale would be pickings for the swift-swimming orcas.

Two male orcas nicknamed Blade and Hookfin approached the whale, apparently displaying curiosity — a normal behavior for orcas, Hoyt said. The whale defended itself by lashing out with its pectoral fins and tail fluke. Next, according to Whale Watch Western Australia, the matriarch of the orca pod, nicknamed Queen, approached in a great flurry of splashing and white water. When the water cleared, a large chunk of the rope binding the whale's fluke was floating away. To the whale watchers' surprise, the orcas then moved on, swimming in the opposite direction of the whale. ...

FULL STORY: https://www.livescience.com/orcas-free-entangled-humpback-whale

 

[Kondoru]

Orcas might disdain an unhealthy individual, I can well believe that, but I cannot believe they would rescue one.

 

[Mythopoeika]

Orcas might disdain an unhealthy individual, I can well believe that, but I cannot believe they would rescue one.

Is it possible that they recognised this whale that had helped them in some way?
Perhaps saved one of them?

In the world of animals, altruism shows up in unusual ways.

 

[Frideswide]

Orcas might disdain an unhealthy individual, I can well believe that, but I cannot believe they would rescue one.

I'm thinking they were acting like gamekeepers

 

[Bullseye]

There is always the possibility that the Killers did it purely because they could. If one of their own pod has a problem, if they can understand the problem, they would try to help. They don't think the same way we do, never assume other animals are reacting the same way we do.

Cuthbert the killer, "Hmm, reckon I could free that other whale", tries to do so.
Other Killers, "Wtf is Cuthbert up to?, " "Oh he's trying to free the big fella", "We could help?" "Yeah ok"

All Killers "Yea that was fun, we did it, now let's kill the f***ker", "Where's it gone?"

 

[cycleboy2]

Some not so altrustic orcas here, killing and eating blue whales, one of which was apparently a healthy adult. These were witnessed by whale-watchers. I've been on whale-watching trips and that would have spolied my day out! (Not sure it did much for the blue whales' days...)

https://www.theguardian.com/environ...-feeding-on-blue-whales-in-brutal-attacks-aoe

 

[ramonmercado]

Male dolphins have their own affinity groups.

Anthropologists have long celebrated and puzzled over humans’ ability to cooperate. Our special talent lies in forming nested cooperative networks that involve unrelated individuals: family, community, city, state, nation, and allied nations. Not even our closest relative, the chimpanzee, does this. But over the past 4 decades, researchers have shown that another animal does: the sea-going Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops aduncus) of Shark Bay in Western Australia.

Unrelated male dolphins deploy their social smarts to build complex alliances that boost their chances of reproductive success. A new study concludes these are the largest such complex cooperative societies outside of humans. Moreover, they appear to have evolved in a different way from our own. “It’s an exciting finding that helps bridge the immense, perceived gap between humans and other animals,” says Mauricio Cantor, a behavioral ecologist at Oregon State University who was not involved in the study.

In an exploration of dolphin society launched in 1982, behavioral ecologist Richard Connor, now affiliated with Florida International University, and his team have been following more than 200 male dolphins in the exceptionally clear waters of Shark Bay, recording which males spend the most time together. Over the years, they have found that males form close relationships with one or two other males, and that these partnerships are nested inside a larger alliance, which in turn are nested inside yet another alliance—rather like being a member of “a platoon, a company, and a regiment,” notes Harvard University primatologist Richard Wrangham, who is not part of the team. The male dolphins cooperate in order to capture and defend fertile female dolphins from other groups of males. A lone male cannot corral a female; he needs partners.

In the new study, the team analyzed data collected between 2001 and 2006 on 121 individual males, revealing a super-connected social network with every male connected to one another either directly or indirectly. The males even cultivate relationships with males outside of their three-level alliances, forming the biggest network known in any nonhuman species, and thereby increasing their reproductive success, the researchers report today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Each male had on average 22 allies; some had as many as 50.

https://www.science.org/content/art...-world-s-biggest-social-networks-long-running

 

[EnolaGaia]

Humpback whale "songs" (or at least distinct and trackable "riffs") have been found to propagate among groups (pods) over thousands of miles from their point of origin.

Humpback Whales Almost 9,000 Miles Apart Have Been Caught Singing The Same Song

Humpback whales throughout the entire South Pacific Ocean are connected to each other via shared song, according to new research.

From the east coast of Australia to French Polynesia to breeding grounds off Ecuador – a total distance of more than 14,000 kilometers (8,700 miles) – researchers have heard humpbacks (Megaptera novaeangliae) trading the same viral hits.

Male humpback whales are known to belt out mating songs 'as complex as jazz' during breeding season, and each population has a slightly different chorus of vocalizations that they string together in unique ways.

These multiple repeating phrases are known as 'themes', and each whale song has several.

Yet every once and a while, a breeding population will undergo a song 'revolution', whereby all the themes the males sing are replaced by new ones.

It's not clear why they do this, but previous studies have shown these subtle amendments can turn into smash hits.

Around the turn of the century, humpback populations on the west coast of Australia were found to be sharing themes with populations on the east coast.

Then, years later, breeding populations near French Polynesia were caught singing the same song themes that started on the east coast of Australia, about 6,000 kilometers (3,730 miles) away.

Now, it seems, the songs can spread even further. Researchers have shown whale songs in French Polynesia can migrate right across the Pacific Ocean to South America, another 8,000 kilometers (4,970 miles) east.

Over the course of three years, from 2016 to 2018, the team was able to map a gradual song revolution that was first heard in French Polynesia and then again off South America just a few years later. ...

FULL STORY: https://www.sciencealert.com/humpba...-apart-have-been-caught-singing-the-same-song

 

[EnolaGaia]

Here are the bibliographic details and abstract for the published research report. The full report is accessible at the link below.

---

Schulze Josephine N., Denkinger Judith, Oña Javier, Poole M. Michael and Garland Ellen C. 2022
Humpback whale song revolutions continue to spread from the central into the eastern South Pacific
R. Soc. open sci. 9220158220158
https://doi.org/10.1098/rsos.220158

Abstract
Cultural transmission of behaviour is an important aspect of many animal communities ranging from humans to birds. Male humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) sing a repetitive, stereotyped, socially learnt and culturally transmitted song display that slowly evolves each year. Most males within a population sing the same, slow-evolving song type; but in the South Pacific, song ‘revolutions’ have led to rapid and complete replacement of one song type by another introduced from a neighbouring population. Songs spread eastwards, from eastern Australia to French Polynesia, but the easterly extent of this transmission was unknown. Here, we investigated whether song revolutions continue to spread from the central (French Polynesia) into the eastern (Ecuador) South Pacific region. Similarity analyses using three consecutive years of song data (2016–2018) revealed that song themes recorded in 2016–2018 French Polynesian song matched song themes sung in 2018 Ecuadorian song, suggesting continued easterly transmission of song to Ecuador, and vocal connectivity across the entire South Pacific Ocean basin. This study demonstrates songs first identified in western populations can be transmitted across the entire South Pacific, supporting the potential for a circumpolar Southern Hemisphere cultural transmission of song and a vocal culture rivalled in its extent only by our own.

SOURCE / FULL REPORT: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.220158

 

[ramonmercado]

Thar She Blows!

Five people have died in New Zealand after a birdwatching boat capsized, possibly after colliding with a whale.

Eleven people, mostly from the birdwatching group, were onboard when the boat capsized on Saturday in Goose Bay near the town of Kaikōura.

Police declined to speculate on what had caused the accident, merely confirming the collision.

But Craig Mackle, the mayor of Kaikōura, told reporters he believed the boat had hit a surfacing whale.

Mr Mackle said conditions in the bay at the time were "perfect" and that officials assumed the whale had surfaced beneath the vessel, causing it to overturn. If the boat had hit debris - for example a log - it would have left a large hole in the 8.5-meter (28-foot) boat, he added, which wasn't apparent.

"This is a tragic event that affects many lives, not least of all families and loved ones," Mr Mackie said at a news conference. "I would like to thank everyone involved in the rescue and the recovery. Being able to bring everyone home is the best result in such a terrible circumstance."

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-62860778

 

[Min Bannister]

I noticed this snippet about being rescued by porpoises at the end of a story about Dick van Dyke crashing his car (minor injuries and he is to retake his test)

In 2010, in an interview with Craig Ferguson, the then-84-year-old recalled an incident where he drifted out to sea after he fell asleep atop his surfboard. In an incident that could have been a scene cut from Mary Poppins: Beach Vacation, he said a group of friendly porpoises helped push his board closer to shore.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-65038802

 

[ramonmercado]

You should have seen the size of the one that got away ...

Minke whale: Angler enjoys rare encounter in English Channel​

A man who shared a rare encounter with a minke whale in the English Channel while fishing has said the experience was "magical".

Dave Duggan and his friend Luke Edir spotted the marine mammal while out at sea off Eastbourne on Saturday. Mr Duggan, from St Leonards-on-Sea, said the whale was about 25ft (8m) in length and had stayed alongside his boat for about five minutes.

Whale expert Prof Peter Evans said such sightings were unusual in the Channel.

"In the western English Channel, the species is regular as far east as South Devon across to the Channel Isles, but east of there, minkes are very scarce," he said.

Mr Duggan, who often fishes in the area, said it had been "an honour" to see the creature.

He added that while they had seen dolphins in the waters before during their regular fishing trips, it was the first time he had seen a whale.

IMAGE SOURCE, DAVE DUGGAN/LUKE EDIR Image caption, Prof Evans said the whale must have been lured to the area by "good food"

Prof Evans, who is the director of the Sea Watch Foundation and honorary professor at Bangor University's School of Ocean Studies, said he only knew of four previous sightings of the species in the region in the last 20 years.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-sussex-65231985