#baleenwhales — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #baleenwhales, aggregated by home.social.
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‘There’s just not enough food’
A concerning new report has revealed how rising ocean temperatures are disrupting the migrations of vital marine species.…
#NewsBeep #News #US #USA #UnitedStates #UnitedStatesOfAmerica #Wildlife #baleenwhales #ClimateNews #globaltemperatures #marineprotectedareas #marinespecies #migratoryspecies #oceantemperatures #risingoceantemperatures #Science #Sharksandwhales #UnitedNations
https://www.newsbeep.com/us/309732/ -
We were warned! From September 2024. And now the #whales are falling silent!!! And #krill are dependent on whales as much as whales are dependent on krill!
#KrillHarvesting threatens #whale recovery
Soaring human demand for krill in the Southern Ocean poses a challenge to the recovery of whale species once hunted nearly to extinction. Stanford researchers identify the growing food conflict and offer solutions.
September 10th, 2024
"Human harvesting of krill in the Southern Ocean could threaten the recovery of whale species that were nearly wiped out by industrial whaling in the 20th century, according to a Sept. 10 study in Nature Communications.
"The tiny, shrimp-like crustaceans known as krill are the essential food source for baleen whales such as blues and #humpbacks. To feed, these giant marine mammals take in great gulps of ocean water, filtering krill through bristly mouth structures. Booming demand for krill as #FishMeal and #omega3 fatty acid nutritional #supplements, however, could leave whales without enough victuals to sustain even their diminished numbers.
" 'Our calculations suggest an alarming possibility that we might harvest krill to the point where we do real damage to recovering whale populations,' said lead study author Matthew Savoca, a research scientist in the lab of Jeremy Goldbogen, associate professor of oceans in the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability.
"The results highlight a need for scientists, regulators, and industry to carefully assess the impacts of krill harvesting in the Southern Ocean at current levels before expanding. 'With this study, we want to draw attention to how there likely isn’t enough krill to support fully recovered whale populations, and now on top of that, we’re harvesting krill and plan to harvest more krill in the near future,' said Goldbogen, the study’s senior author
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Counting on krill"The new research grew out of a prior Stanford study documenting how baleen whales gobble up significantly more krill than scientists had previously estimated. A paradoxical finding of that study was that, as whale populations plummeted by roughly 90% in the Southern Ocean during whaling’s grim heyday, so, too, did krill populations.
"The researchers worked out that #BaleenWhales effectively fertilize the ocean through their prodigious droppings, providing nutrients for the #phytoplankton that krill eat. The upshot: The krill population must have been much larger, perhaps five times greater, than it is currently to have sustained the pre-whaling whale populations in the early 20th century.
" 'Krill is the foundation of the entire Southern Ocean ecosystem. They’re really the only thing that large whales eat down there,' Savoca said.
"In the nearly 40 years since a global whaling moratorium went into place in 1986, some Southern Ocean species – particularly humpbacks – have made an impressive comeback. Yet this recovery has taken place against increasing competition with humans for the whales’ critical food source; over the past 30 years, the krill catch has quadrupled to around 400,000 tons annually and is set to expand further.
"Savoca and colleagues calculated how much krill is left in the Southern Ocean for baleen whales, seabirds, and other predators to eat after industrial krill harvesting at current rates, compared to the estimated amount of krill available before industrial whaling began. 'The basic math makes it pretty clear that the current krill biomass cannot support both an expanding krill fishery and the recovery of whale populations to pre-whaling size,' said Savoca."
Read more:
#SaveTheWhales #KrillSupplements #Overfishing #FoodChain #FoodIsLife #WaterIsLife #Whales #Extinction #BlueWhales
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My 25 years of palaeoart chronology...
The 2022 Korean translation of Locked in Time (by Dr Dean Lomax & published by Columbia University Press) commissioned me to colourise my 50 greyscale illustrations. "Victims of the Bloom" shows a mass stranding of baleen whales, sperm whales, seals, and fishes, caused by a toxic algal bloom.
#Art #Painting #PaleoArt #PalaeoArt #SciArt #SciComm #DigitalArt #Illustration #Palaeontology #Paleontology #BaleenWhales #SpermWhale #WildlifeArt
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#Whales move nutrients from Alaska to Hawaii in their urine, supporting tropical ecosystems https://phys.org/news/2025-03-whales-nutrients-alaska-hawaii-urine.html
Migrating #BaleenWhales transport high-latitude nutrients to tropical and subtropical ecosystems https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-56123-2
"in oceans across the globe, great whales—including #RightWhales, #GrayWhales, and #humpbacks—transport about 4,000 tons of nitrogen each year to low-nutrient coastal areas in the tropics and subtropics. They also bring more than 45,000 tons of biomass"
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Some species of #BaleenWhales may avoid attracting #KillerWhales by singing too low to be heard https://phys.org/news/2025-02-species-baleen-whales-killer-heard.html paper: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/mms.13228
"baleen #whales face predatory attacks from killer whales. When attacked, some species fight back, while others choose flight... some baleen #whale species call at such deep frequencies that they're completely undetectable by killer whales... These tend to be the whale species that flee in the face of attack."
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How #baleen #whales have adapted over past 50M years
The new study "Into the Blue: Exploring #genetic mechanisms behind the #evolution of #baleenwhales," explores key genetic adaptations of these diverse #whale species around #oceans—giving new insights into risks and opportunities for their survival. The study looks at intriguing mammals—from gigantism of largest blue and fin whales, to diving and migratory abilities of other whales: including humpbacks, minkes & gray.
https://phys.org/news/2024-08-blue-baleen-whales-million-years.html -
Baleen whale population (all species): ~1.1 million.
Human population: ~8.2 billion. Roughly 8,000 times as many of us as there are baleen whales.
Which species is the resource hog? Which species has greater flexibility in numbers?
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22-Aug-2024
Into the blue: How #baleenWhales have adapted over the past 50 million years -
These #Whales Still Use Their #VocalCords.
Unusual experiments on organs recovered from three carcasses suggest how #baleen whales call out at #sea. #Toothedwhales, like #spermwhales and #dolphins, use their larynges like a cork to seal their airways; they evolved a way to produce sounds in their nasal cavities instead. But #scientists suspected that filter-feeding #baleenwhales, including the musical #humpbacks and huge #bluewhales, still use their voice boxes. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/21/science/whale-song-voice-box.html?unlocked_article_code=1.XE0.Ohuo.tSXoT0veB5Lc&smid=url-share -
These #Whales Still Use Their #VocalCords.
Unusual experiments on organs recovered from three carcasses suggest how #baleen whales call out at #sea. #Toothedwhales, like #spermwhales and #dolphins, use their larynges like a cork to seal their airways; they evolved a way to produce sounds in their nasal cavities instead. But #scientists suspected that filter-feeding #baleenwhales, including the musical #humpbacks and huge #bluewhales, still use their voice boxes. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/21/science/whale-song-voice-box.html?unlocked_article_code=1.XE0.Ohuo.tSXoT0veB5Lc&smid=url-share -
These #Whales Still Use Their #VocalCords.
Unusual experiments on organs recovered from three carcasses suggest how #baleen whales call out at #sea. #Toothedwhales, like #spermwhales and #dolphins, use their larynges like a cork to seal their airways; they evolved a way to produce sounds in their nasal cavities instead. But #scientists suspected that filter-feeding #baleenwhales, including the musical #humpbacks and huge #bluewhales, still use their voice boxes. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/21/science/whale-song-voice-box.html?unlocked_article_code=1.XE0.Ohuo.tSXoT0veB5Lc&smid=url-share -
These #Whales Still Use Their #VocalCords.
Unusual experiments on organs recovered from three carcasses suggest how #baleen whales call out at #sea. #Toothedwhales, like #spermwhales and #dolphins, use their larynges like a cork to seal their airways; they evolved a way to produce sounds in their nasal cavities instead. But #scientists suspected that filter-feeding #baleenwhales, including the musical #humpbacks and huge #bluewhales, still use their voice boxes. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/21/science/whale-song-voice-box.html?unlocked_article_code=1.XE0.Ohuo.tSXoT0veB5Lc&smid=url-share -
These #Whales Still Use Their #VocalCords.
Unusual experiments on organs recovered from three carcasses suggest how #baleen whales call out at #sea. #Toothedwhales, like #spermwhales and #dolphins, use their larynges like a cork to seal their airways; they evolved a way to produce sounds in their nasal cavities instead. But #scientists suspected that filter-feeding #baleenwhales, including the musical #humpbacks and huge #bluewhales, still use their voice boxes. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/21/science/whale-song-voice-box.html?unlocked_article_code=1.XE0.Ohuo.tSXoT0veB5Lc&smid=url-share -
Baleen whales evolved a unique larynx to communicate but cannot escape human noise https://www.sdu.dk/en/om_sdu/fakulteterne/naturvidenskab/nyheder-2024/baleen-whales paper: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-024-07080-1
"The toothed and baleen #whales evolved from land #mammals that had a #larynx serving 2 functions: protecting the airways and sound production. Their transition to aquatic life placed new and strict demands on the larynx to prevent choking... #BaleenWhales nevertheless can still produce sound with their larynx, but they have evolved novel structures to do so"
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A 19-million-year-old fossil jaw bone hints the biggest whales first evolved somewhere unexpected
https://phys.org/news/2023-12-million-year-old-fossil-jaw-bone-hints.htmlGiant baleen whales emerged from a cold southern cradle https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspb.2023.2177
"#Scientists previously thought #BaleenWhales kept to relatively small proportions until the ice ages... new #fossil finds from the Southern Hemisphere are starting to show us that at least down south, #whales got bigger much earlier"