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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MIAMI SEA AQUARIUM's ORCA TOKITAE DEAD : THEY THOUGHT TO RETURN HER TO THE OCEAN BUT SHE DIED BEFORE SHE COULD GO BACK TO THE PACIFIC AND SEATTLE

THE GUARDIAN : ORCA DEAD After half a century in captivity, Tokitae the performing orca could finally go home   WELL SHE DIED BEFORE THEY COULD THROW HER BACK IN THE OCEAN....

SEATTLE TIMES : TOKITAE DEAD  See her performing in the photo.

She was one of very many whales that were captured with the desire to make them into performers.  Many of them died in the capture.... 

DEAD SEA SINK HOLES SUCKING TOURISTS!

I like my "headline better than theirs..." Here the breaking news from Joseph Marks of the Seattle Times...

"These underground craters can open up in an instant, sucking in whatever lies above and leaving the surrounding area looking like an earthquake zone.

The phenomenon, Raz said, stems from a dire water shortage, compounded in recent years by tourism and chemical industries as well as a growing population. "This is the most remarkable evidence of the brutal interference of humans in the Dead Sea," he said.

The parched moonscape, famous as the site of biblical Sodom and Gomorra, is the lowest point on earth and runs more than 60 miles through Israel and the West Bank."