BELUGA WHALES FROM SEA WORLD BEING AIRLIFTED TO OTHER PARKS AND SANCTUARIES

REUTERS CONNECT : BELUGA WHALES AIRLIFTED 

Excerpt: Six beluga whales have embarked on an incredible journey across North America after being rescued from a closed Canadian marine park.

The airlifted cetaceans have arrived safely at aquariums in the United States, marking the first stage of a major international effort to rehome the animals.

The whales are among a pod of 30 belugas previously housed at Marineland of Canada, which has closed and is no longer able to provide for their long-term care.

Several aquariums accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) have joined the rescue operation because of their expertise in caring for the species and experience in marine mammal rescue.

Four female belugas have been relocated to Shedd Aquarium in Chicago, while two others have been transferred to SeaWorld San Antonio in Texas.

The whales travelled by road and air in specially designed, water-filled containers. Marine mammal veterinarians and animal care specialists accompanied them throughout the journey.

Although all six whales arrived safely, experts cautioned that transporting animals over such long distances carries risks and said it would take time to assess their overall health and condition.

"This moment marks the next chapter for these rescued belugas," said Dr. Karisa Tang, lead veterinarian and vice president of animal health at Shedd Aquarium. "Now that they are here, the full attention of our care and veterinary teams is on getting to know these whales and providing whatever supplemental support, care, treatment, nutrition and attention we can provide to help them acclimate to their new environment."

The four whales transferred to Chicago were deliberately moved together because of their established social bonds. Belugas are highly social animals, and keeping familiar groups together is considered important in reducing stress during transport and helping them settle into their new surroundings....

Siren here!  There have been other recent recues as well.

ORCAS RAM A SUNFISH SO HARD IT EXPLODES : ARE THEY PLAYING WITH THEIR FOOD?

NPR : ORCAS EXPLODE SUNFISH

Excerpt : Off the shores of Cabo San Lucas, Kathryn Ayres, a scientist at the ocean-health nonprofit Beneath The Waves, saw a surprising orca behavior: One orca holds a sunfish in its mouth, while another lines up and then rams it at high speed — leaving behind thousands of sunfish bits scattered like confetti.

(I'm feeling sorry for the sunfish - seeing it coming! - Siren)

... "We think this may help younger orcas feed more easily — or it could also just be for fun," Ayres says. "Orcas are known for playing with their food."

In fact, these marine mammals have been documented displaying all kinds of "playful" behaviors. Orcas off of Washington state have been seen wearing salmon as hats. And some adolescent orcas take up a hobby of  sinking ships. 

They're like cats, says Robert Pitman, a marine ecologist at Oregon State University who wasn't involved with the study. He says, like cats, orcas like to "torment prey and non-prey alike."

But Pitman thinks this is primarily a feeding behavior. He notes some older orcas that eat sharks have trouble eating later in life due to teeth worn down to their gums — as do young orcas without teeth. Sunfish, like sharks, can be tough to eat. They can weigh thousands of pounds and have incredibly dense, rubbery, and collagenous skin several inches thick. And if that wasn't trouble enough, "there just doesn't seem to be much to eat on a sunfish," he says.

CONTENDER THE ENORMOUS GREAT WHITE SHARK PINGING BETWEEN FLORIDA AND CANADA - NORTH CAROLINA AND MAINE

The great white shark, named Contender, is nearly 14ft long and weighs more than 1,650lbs. The hulking fish has been pinged in several locations off North Carolina and Maine as he headed north for the summer, with Contender’s last known location located off Nova Scotia in Canada on 11 July.

Contender is the largest male ever tagged in the Atlantic by Ocearch, a shark research organization, which first attached a satellite tag to his dorsal fin in January last year. The giant predator, thought to be 30 years old, shuttles between Florida and Canada in his seasonal migrations. Ocearch said it is confident that Contender, named after a research boat, is now summering in Canada.

Excerpt: THE GUARDIAN : CONTENDER PINGING

ANEMONES

 

KILLER WHALES HAVE NEW WAY TO GET SHARK LIVERS : THEY HEAD BUTT THE SHARKS!

Excerpt: Behavioral ecologist Tristan Guttridge has uncovered how orcas, better known as killer whales, have been able to wipe out populations of white sharks around the world - ripping them apart in highly coordinated strikes from the US to Africa.

'These animals are taking out Jaws... surgically removing their liver and leaving the rest of the animal,' Dr Guttridge said during Discovery's annual Shark Week, in a new special airing Tuesday at 9pm ET.

Shockingly, it appears orcas have learned and taught other whales this deadly behavior by practicing on human sailing boats, wrecking and even capsizing hundreds of boats worldwide.

 YIKES!

Excerpt: In South Africa, dead white sharks began washing ashore with their livers 'surgically extracted.'

Researchers explained that a shark's liver, which makes up 25 percent of their body weight, represents a pure energy feast to a pod of orcas.

Shark livers help the creature store massive amounts of fuel, and are also filled with oils that help the animal control its ability to float. For a great white shark, the liver can weigh hundreds of pounds.

While the great white is a massive predator, orcas are even bigger and can grow to be over 30 feet long and weigh over 14,000 pounds.

DAILY MAIL SCIENCE : ORCAS HUNT SHARK LIVERS

FRESH WATER "PEACH BLOSSOM" JELLYFISH IN IDAHO POND?

Peach blossom jellyfish originated in China :

LA MONDE DE LA MER

 

FOUR HUNDRED POUND SEA TURTLE IN CAYMAN ISLAND SWIMMING POOL RESCUED

Artificial Light is the problem:

Excerpt: But artificial light sources from development on the beach, or flashlights, can interrupt this process and redirect the turtles from where they need to go.

The DoE reminded beachfront properties to help protect nesting turtles by doing the following:Retaining and restoring native coastal vegetation
Reducing artificial light visible from the beach
Moving beach furniture and small watercrafts off the active beach overnight
Designing new elevated pools or installing effective barriers around ground-level pools
Never leaving ground-level pools empty or without suitable fencing during nesting season

 Beach-goers and tourists can also do their part to protect sea turtles. during nesting season, including keeping beaches flat and easy to navigate and reducing their own sources of artificial light.

GoodGoodGood : Sea Turtle Rescue Caymen Islands Resort

A ONE HUNDRED FOOT ROGUE WAVE SHATTERED OCEAN SCIENCE MYTH : THIS ONE WAS CAUGHT ON CAMERA

The 100-Foot Rogue Wave That Shattered Ocean Science Myths

Excerpt: A dramatic image that has recently resurfaced on social media shows what is believed to be one of history's most famous rogue waves—a towering wall of water bearing down on the French supertanker Esso Languedoc off the coast of Durban, South Africa, in 1980.

The unforgettable photograph was taken by first mate Philippe Lijour, who happened to have his camera ready as the massive wave rose above the ship's bow. The wave was later estimated to have reached nearly 100 feet in height.

The numbers alone are staggering.

As the wave crashed across the vessel, it swept over a mast standing roughly 82 feet above the waterline, offering one of the earliest pieces of photographic evidence that these seemingly impossible waves truly existed.

ORCA

 

WHY WON'T THE DEALIEST PREDATOR IN THE OCEAN (ORCA) EAT YOU?

They don't hunt humans.  Do we taste bad?

WHAT ELSE IS HIDING DOWN IN THE ATACAMA TRENCH ? : D CAMANCHACA BUILT FOR VIOLENCE : NEW PREDATOR WITH FRONT LIMBS AND SPRING LOADED CLAWS

POPULAR MECHANICS " NEW PREDATOR FOUND IN ATACAMA TRENCH

Excerpt: while nobody has yet watched D. camanchaca eat, its body is clearly built for violence. It has a slender, fast-looking frame, mouthparts made for shredding rather than filtering, and a pair of oversized, grasping front limbs that work like spring-loaded claws. In most amphipods, those limbs are unremarkable. But in D. camanchaca, they dominate the animal’s front end, which is the anatomical signature of something that grabs living prey instead of waiting for a dead whale to drift down.

At 25,925 feet, the water presses down at roughly 790 times the atmospheric pressure at sea level. But the two-inch-long D. camanchaca is able to live there, molting, swimming, and hunting under a load that would flatten most creatures. Precisely how it manages that isn’t yet fully understood.

“This finding underlines the importance of continued deep-ocean exploration particularly in Chile’s front yard,” IMO’s Carolina González, co-lead author of the study, said in a press statement “More discoveries are expected as we continue to study the Atacama Trench.”