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.

SETI PROJECT : HUMPBACK WHALES BLOW RINGS ON THE SURFACE OF THE OCEAN

Excerpt: June 5, 2025, Mountain View, CA -- A team of scientists from the SETI Institute and the University of California at Davis documented, for the first time, humpback whales producing large bubble rings, like a human smoker blowing smoke rings, during friendly interactions with humans. This previously little studied behavior may represent play or communication. Humpback whales are already known for using bubbles to corral prey and creating bubble trails and bursts when competing to escort a female whale. These new observations show humpback whales producing bubble rings during friendly encounters with humans. This finding contributes to the WhaleSETI team’s broader goal of studying non-human intelligence to aid in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence.

SETI NEWS : WHALES BLOW SMOKE RINGS

ROBERT E. FULLER COMBINES ACTIVISM WITH ART : HUMPBACK WHALES IN ALASKAN WATERS

A few months ago I started watching Robert. E. Fullers YouTube channel.  What an amazing person! This short video on humpback whales is just one of his very many.  If you follow his channel you'll learn how to help birds survive by building safe nesting spots for them, and so much more.  Robert is also fine artist who sells his work.

DRONES RECORD HUNDREDS OF WHALES : CHANGES IN SIZE OF FEMALES AND CALVES : DROP IN BIRTHRATE : HEATWAVES EFFECT

SEATTLE TIMES : DRONES RECORD HUNDREDS OF WHALES by Brendan Rascius  of McClatchy News 

EXCERPT: ... scientists documented dramatic changes in the size of the mothers and calves and in humpback birthrates.
Changes in size

Between 2018 and 2022, “a total of 2,410 measurements were taken from 1,659 individuals, with 405 repeat measurements from 137 lactating females used to track changes in maternal body volume over migration,” Martin van Aswegen, one of the study authors, said in a news release from the University of Hawaii at Manoa.

In six months, they decreased in body volume by 17% on average. Specifically, the mothers off Hawaii — where the whales breed — lost about 214 pounds of blubber each day.

Comparatively, nonpregnant and pregnant females off Alaska — where the whales feed — gained size much faster than new mothers, putting on weight between two and six times the rate of lactating females.

Calves, in contrast, rapidly put on weight. They increased their body volume by about 395%, and their length increased by nearly 60%.

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KEEP READING! 

SANCTUARY OCEAN COUNT HAWAII'S HUMBACK WHALES

 The 2025 Ocean Counts are scheduled for the following Saturday’s:

January 25

February 22

March 29

SIGN UP STARTS JANUARY 6TH.

Ocean Count ORG

HUMAN NOISE DROWNS OUT HUMPBACK COMMUNICATION

HUMAN NOISE DROWNS OUT HUMBACK COMMUNICATION 

In this Newsweek article, we learn that the whales cannot make sounds out of their biologically possible range though their sounds can travel great distances through the water.  The trouble is not just noise but that the big ships make sounds in the same range, which can be confusing.

BEAUTIFUL WHALE : BRYANT AUSTIN PHOTOGRAPHER GETS UP CLOSE TO WHALES

STUDIO COSMOS : BRYANT AUSTIN PHOTOGRAPHER 

Humpback, Sperm, and Minke Whales up close....

A beautiful book!

All those fish hiking a ride...

Such intelligent eyes!

KILLER SPINNER BOTTLENOSE NARWHALE HUMBACK BOTTLENOSE GREAT BLUE DUSKY SPERM

 

USE THE SEARCH FEATURE or CLICK ON A TAG TO FIND ALL THE PAST POSTS ABOUT HUMPBACK WHALES

 or simply use the term WHALE to bring up all the WHALE posts!

SETI INSTITUTE SCIENTISTS

SETI ORG - HUMPBACK WHALE COMMUNICATION PRESS RELEASE 

Excerpt: A description and analysis of the encounter appears in a recent issue of the journal Peer J. entitled: “Interactive Bioacoustic Playback as a Tool for Detecting and Exploring Nonhuman Intelligence: “Conversing” with an Alaskan Humpback Whale.” “We believe this is the first such communicative exchange between humans and humpback whales in the humpback “language,” said lead author Dr. Brenda McCowan of U.C. Davis. “Humpback whales are extremely intelligent, have complex social systems, make tools - nets out of bubbles to catch fish -, and communicate extensively with both songs and social calls,” said coauthor Dr. Fred Sharpe of the Alaska Whale Foundation.  

WHALE-SETI PROJECT : TWENTY MINUTE CONVERSATION WITH HUMPBACK WHALE NAMED TWAIN

EARTH COM : 20 MINUTE CONVERSATION WITH HUMPBACK WHALES 

Excerpt:  hale-SETI, short for Whale Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence, marks a revolutionary stride in understanding marine mammals, particularly whales.

This project blends the search for extraterrestrial intelligence with marine biology, aiming to decode whale communication. It operates under the hypothesis that whale sounds contain complex, intelligent messages akin to languages used by humans or potentially, extraterrestrial beings.

PACIFIC WHALE FOUNDATION DOES THE WHALE COUNT FOR THE HAWAIIAN ISLANDS

PACIFIC WHALE ORG 

A recent article on the whale count (lots of other marine animals noted too!) 

KAUAI NEWS : JANUARY 2024 HAWAII WHALE COUNT

Excerpt:  n Saturday, 402 volunteers gathered data statewide from 44 sites across the Hawaiian Islands. A total of 315 whales were observed from 9 to 9:15 a.m., the most of any time period throughout the day’s count.

On the islands of Kaua‘i, O‘ahu, Molokaʻi and Hawai‘i, Ocean Count volunteers collected data from 32 sites; a total of 174 whales were observed during the 9 to 9:15 a.m.

On Maui and Lānaʻi, Great Whale Count volunteers collected data from 12 sites during 15-minute intervals between 8:30 and 11:50 a.m. A total of 141 whales were observed during the 9 to 9:15 a.m. time period.

On Kaua‘i, the total number of whales observed during the day’s count was 292, on O‘ahu, the total was 604, on Molokaʻi, the total was 30 and on Hawai‘i 324.

The total number for the Great Whale Count on Maui was 821, and on Lānaʻi was 53, for a grand total of 2,124 throughout the state. This number may represent duplicate sightings of the same whale by different observers or at different time periods or different locations throughout the day.

TWENTY MINUTE CONVERSATION WITH HUMPBACKED WHALE MAY LEAD TO COMMUNICATING WITH ALIENS IN SPACE

DAILY MAIL SCIENCE : 20 MINUTE CONVERSATION WITH WHALE - ALIENS  by William Hunter

Excerpt: 38-year-old whale named Twain 'spoke' with the researchers from the SETI Institute and UC Davis by responding to a pre-recorded 'contact call'. 

CENTER FOR BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY SUES OVER U.S. FAILURE TO PROTECT ENDANGERED HUMP BACK WHALES

SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICAL: U.S. FAILING TO PROTECT ENDANGERED SPECIES - HUMPBACK WHALES by Bob Egelko

Excerpt: the law gives the highest priority to protecting species "whose level of iincidental mortality and serious injury exceeds the potential biological removal level, those that have a small population size, and those which are declining most rapidly," the judge wrote.  He said such measures are required for commercial fisheries whose activity causes serious injury or death to marine mammals, a description that "fits to the tee the ESA (Endangered Species Act) listed humpback whales and pot fishery here."

TERRIBLY INJURED HUMPBACK WHALE

Excerpt:

The whale, BCX1232, also called Moon, was spotted recently off the Kona coast by the crew of the Hawaiian Adventures Kona. When she was sighted in B.C. waters, experts said she would likely not make it to the warmer Hawaii ocean due to her severe spinal injury. However, she made the more than 4,000-mile migration once again. Now, experts are very worried about her condition, which they believe was the result of a ship strike.

HUMPBACK WHALES HAVE SECRET LIFE - SCIENTISTS RECORD NEW 'GUNSHOT' WHALE COMMUNICATION

DAILYMAIL : SCIENCE: SECRET LIFE OF HUMPBACK WHALES includes recording of sounds 

Excerpt:  The team from the universities of Exeter and Stellenbosch (South Africa) and Greenpeace Research Laboratories, recorded sounds at the Vema Seamount in the Atlantic Ocean, hundreds of miles west of South Africa.

Whale sounds are categorized into continuous 'song' and shorter 'non-song' calls 0 and the study recorded 600 non-song calls over 11 days.

These included an 'impulsive sound' == dubbed 'gunshot' by the researchers --that has never been recorded before.

They also captured 'whup' and 'grumble' calls, suggesting this location could be an important stop on the whales' migration to polar feeding grounds.

MAMA HUMPBACK FENDS OF KILLER WHALES TRYING TO EAT HER CALF

DAILY MAIL - HUMPBACK WHALE MOTHER ENDS OFF A POD OF KILLER WHALES TRYING TO ATTACK HER CALF

Whales have whale enemies.  In this article by Charlotte Kapp for Daily Mail Australia, you'll see drone video of the way the Killer Whales, also called Orcas,  attempt to distract the Mama Humpback.  Unfortunately the baby whale was then killed by hunters....

Will you feel angry that men have killed it?

NOT TOO LATE TO SAVE THE OCEAN?

DAILY MAIL : IT'S NOT TOO LATE TO SAVE THE OCEANS BY 2050 by Jonathan Chadwick

Excerpt: Although humans have greatly altered sea life to its detriment in the past, the researchers found evidence of the remarkable resilience of marine life.

This include particularly spectacular cases of recovery7, such as the humpback whale, which was brought to the brink of extinction in the 1960's, with just a few hundred surviving in the wild, a result of commercial whaling.

PREGNANCY TEST FOR HUMPBACK WHALES

NATURE : WHALE PREGNANCY TEST

EXCERPT: From a boat, a crew fires a dart into the body of a humpback to obtain a tissue sample.... the researchers measure concentrations of the hormone progesterone in the animal's blubber.

FISHERMAN and SON FEED HUMBACK WHALE TANGLED IN FISHING LINES

DAILY MAIL - FISHERMAN and FIVE YEAR OLD SON FEED HUMPBACK WHALE TANGLED IN FISHING LINES

EXCERPT:

The fisherman, Calder Deyerle, and his son Miles are credited with spotting the struggling whale, which was dragging heavy crab fishing lines and floats Tuesday morning.

The two then contacted authorities, who sent out members of the California Whale Rescue.

The father-son team then waited in their boat nearby to show the group the whale's location. The CWA used a pole to try and cut the ropes off the whale...

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EXCELLENT PHOTOS AND VIDEO at this link show the poor caught whale and the rescue.