BLUE WHALES GONE SILENT?! CLIMATE CHANGE? ALL ENERGY USED TO FIND ENOUGH FOOD - KRILL

THE WEEK : BLUE WHALES NOT SINGING -CLIMATE CHANGE

Excerpt: The study tracked over six years of acoustic monitoring in the central California Current Ecosystem. During those years, blue whale sounds decreased by approximately 40%.

"We don't hear them singing," John Ryan, a biological oceanographer at the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute and the lead author of the study, said to National Geographic. They are "spending all their energy searching." There's "just not enough time left over" for singing, and that "tells us those years are incredibly stressful." It's like "trying to sing while you are starving,"

"When we have these really hot years and marine heat waves, it's more than just temperature," Kelly Benoit-Bird, a marine biologist at Monterey Bay Aquarium and co-author of the study, said to National Geographic. "The whole system changes, and we don't get the krill." So the animals that "rely only on krill are kind of out of luck." High ocean temperatures lead to algal blooms that can kill krill. And blue whales are "forced to forage over a much larger geographic area when krill populations become depleted," said Newsweek.

Marine heat waves are only going to get worse due to fossil fuel usage. Oceans act as the world's largest carbon sink, meaning they "already absorb more than 90% of the excess heat from climate change," said The Independent. There are "whole ecosystem consequences of these marine heat waves," said Benoit-Bird. If whales "can't find food and they can traverse the entire West Coast of North America, that's a really large-scale consequence."

BLUE WHALES ARE THE LARGEST ANIMALS ON OUR PLANET!

WORLD WILDLIFE FUND : WORKING IN NATURE'S AQUARIUM - THE GULF OF CALIFORNIA

WORLD WILDLIFE FUND - GULF OF CALIFORNIA

Excerpt: Wedged between the mainland of Mexico to the east and the Baja Peninsula to the west is the GULF OF CALIFORNIA.  

Described by French ocean explorer Jacques Cousteau as the world's aquarium, the gulf supports an extraordinary diversity of marine life, which includes endangered marine turtles and dolphins, coral reefs and over 900 different fish species.

The waters are also an important breeding area for the world's largest animal, the blue whale and other whales such as fin, sperm, orca and humpback.

But pressures from unsustainable tourism, development and commercial fishing are threatening the wildlife and the way of life for millions of people who depend on the sea for their livelihoods.

NOAA THREATENED AND ENDANGERED SPECIES LIST... Three types of whales .. two types of turtles... 163 ON THE LIST

FISHERIES NOAA GOV : SPECIES

I dare you to check this list, pick one of the 163 whales, turtles, or fish on the list, and do more research!

RECENT NEWPORT BEACH CALIFORNIA BLUE WHALE POD SIGHTING - CALVES TOO!

Some CALVES too!

HYDROPHONE CATCHES BLUE WHALES SWITCHING FROM NIGHT SINGING TO DAY SINGING

SCIENCE DAILY : BLUE WHALES SWITCH NIGHT SINGING TO DAY 

Excerpt: By focusing on the whale song wavelengths in the hydrophone data, the researchers noticed a distinct change over several months.  Through the summers, the whale arias grew louder and were sung mostly at nighttime.  Over the five years of data, the whale chorus was loudest around October and November, and singing happened more at nighttime. Following each annual peak in song activity, as the whales began to depart for warmer waters, singing because more of a daytime activity.

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This is a very exciting discovery about our world's largest living creatures.

GREEN BLUE WHALE

BLUE WHALE SNEEZES SNOT AT RESEARCHER

DAILY MAIL : BLUE WHALE SNEEZES SNOT

Ewe!  But good.
Great video... and article.
EXCERPT: Mr. Miller added that the SnotBot drone allows scientists to get vital information from the precious whales - include DNA, hormone and microbiome samples which offer clues about the mammal's ecology and habitat - without any invasive procedures.

BLUE WHALES MAKE A COMEBACK - 55 NEAR ANTARCTICA

DAILY MAIL SCIENCE TECH - 55 BLUE WHALES NEAR ANTARCTICA  Another extensive articles with photos and a video...

EXCERPT: The critically endangered blue whale, the largest animal ever to have lived, is making a comeback, marine scientists say.

A total of 55 blue whales were sighted or recorded in the past year, according to the British Antarctic Survey, which has been studying whale movement in waters surrounding South Georgia Island in the South Atlantic Ocean.   ...  It reaches a maximum length of 98 feet - the same length as two and a half London buses. ... They were hunted almost to extinction by whaling until the International Whaling Commission banned all hunting of blue whales in 1967

CORAL TRIANGLE BIDIVERSITY THE MOST AMAZING ON EARTH - 75% KNOWN SPECIES

THE CORAL TRIANGLE MOST IMPORTANT : NHM

The Coral Triangle is a part of ocean spanning six million square kilometres, over Indonesia, Malaysia, Papua New Guinea, the Philippines, the Solomon Islands and Timor-Leste.

Although it's far less well-known than other places with abundant corals, like the Great Barrier Reef, the Coral Triangle is home to 30% of the world's reefs. In fact, when it comes to biodiversity, it is like nowhere else on Earth. More than 75% of the known coral species live there, as well as 37% of the world's coral reef fish.

It is home to six of the world's seven species of marine turtle, as well as blue whales, sperm whales, dolphins and dugongs.

BLUE WHALE FEMALE KILLED BY BONE BREAKING HIT BY SHIP

SAN JOSE MERCURY NEWS - DEAD WHALE WASHED UP ALONG N. CAL. BEACH


She's 79 feet long but the ship plowed into her and probably didn't feel a bump.  I'm beginning to think I may stop eating sea food all together.  Who needs cruises if they can't use all the sophisticated equipment they have to watch out for whales!

BBC EARTH'S OCEAN GIANTS : TERRIFIC! FILM OH MY GOSH!

I borrowed this set from the library, but I want my own!  This two DVD set had the most thrilling exciting film of Whales (all kinds - Killer Whales, Blue Whales, etc) and Dolphins that I have ever seen!

We want to save the whales, that is true, but we do need to understand that they are creatures like no other and not all docile.  In this film we get to see the way Killer Whales work together to kill prey.  We learn that male dolphins swim in packs / gangs and compete for a young female's interest.  Some of what we get to watch was a first for the scientists and photographers involved too! 

This DVD just came out in 2012 so rush to get it!  Honestly!  Luckily I found a couple YouTube videos from the program for you to watch! But then - I tried - something was wrong and they would not embed. One of them is called Whale Wars - Ocean Giants - BBC ONE

WHALEROUTE MIGRATION - ALL WHALES MIGRATE!

Whales migrate and it's not just the Pacific grays, but also the Southern right whale, the Blues, and the Humpbacks. This site has some interesting details...