December 15, 2005

• Humpback cuddled her saviors in thanks now try and call that anthropomorphism! Or did I read it wrong. If the damm things were truly polite, they wouldn't put up such a struggle when caught; it's just unseemly.
• Thanks for all the fish??!
• Jeez randomaction, you're worse than those lettuce fuckers
• at least it's better than how the sperm whale thanks you.
• Lettuce fucker? But I hardly know her! Seriously though, this story is a reminder that depletion of habitat doesn't only apply on land.
• Humpback covered her saviors in sperms I demand a picture.
• Wow. That's amazing. Not terribly surprising (I have a higher opinion of whales than I do of most people), but still incredible.
• Now there's some Happy News.
• May they always swim free, though sadly ooga makes the telling point.
• "It stopped about a foot away from me, pushed me around a little bit and had some fun." Dude...it was tasting you.
• All the Kids in the Hall fans sing! "Scura, Scura, Scura the gentle shark!"
• Whales have manners And crabs have attitude! Manatees have low self-esteem! Plankton have Oedipal issues!
• 
• That was the best story I've read in awhile. Thanks el es Queso! I, for one, fully support whale lust. But you gotta think how odd it is that the biggest creature in the sea is a mammal. You know the fish are pissed off about that.
• Hmm. I'm trying to think of a case recently, possibly in or around New Zealand, where a diver died trying to free a trapped whale. Damn that's annoying.
• Whale I'll be!
• Breyotch.
• *watches Chy's gif* *winces in sympathetic pain*
• ...but do whales have etiquette advice columnists? "Dear Beluga, the humpbacks are keeping me awake all night with their breaching, bubble-netting and constant singing. Honestly, a few New Age albums and they think they're rock stars. As a blue whale, I am one of the rarest aquatic mammals, and obviously I'll never reproduce if I can't get my beauty sleep. How can I tactfully let these humpbacks know they're out of line? Or should I just have a discreet word with the orcas?"
• Whales have mariners? Of course they do! Jonah, Ahab's leg...the list goes on.
• "Dear Feelin' Blue, Eeeeoooooowwwwwwwwhooooooooooooeeepppppp! AahhhpppppoooooooOOOOooooOooooeEEeeeeeeeaaaaahhh! Akkakakakakkaakakaeeeeennnnrrrrooooooooooppppeeeeeee! Hang in there sister, Beluga"
• It felt to me like it was wanking us, knowing that it was free and that we had helped it.
• Dolphins ‘know each other’s names’
• Humpback whales have 'human' brain cells -study
• Whales saved by fire on Japanese vessel: Hundreds will be spared after the fleet's only factory ship is crippled in Antarctic
• For once, I am on the side of the filthy hippies.
• The Secret Language of Whales Revealed
• There were once an estimated 200,000 to 300,000 in the Southern Hemisphere, but today that number is closer to 1,000, Scripps scientist John Hildebrand told LiveScience. .
• Jeebus. Some of us should really convert to electricity.
• For once, I am on the side of the filthy hippies. You filthy hippies get offa my lawn! Go set fire to a whaling ship or something.
• Whale Fossil Found In Vineyard The five-million-year-old skeleton, 33ft (10m) in length, was dug up in the northern grape-growing area of . . . Can you guess the country where it was found? Did you guess Italy? Well you're correct!
• The vineyard owner, Cristina Mariani, is delighted. "It reminds us "that this rich soil is composed of nutrients and minerals deposited millions of years ago," she says.
• Two Whales Visit The Delta: 50-foot adult humpback whales seen in the Sacto River near Isleton, going wrong way upstream.
• Pied pipers of Humpback.
• Humpback Whale and Dolphin
• Awesome.
• poo. I was going to post that. :(
• Whale conversation decoded
• Discovery set to refute Japanese whaling claims
• the Japanese argue they must kill humpbacks to find out their genetic make-up. What turd-gargling fuckholes. Pardon my Deutch.
• Serenading Belugas in the White Sea
• NZ dolphin rescues beached whales: A dolphin has come to the rescue of two whales which had become stranded on a beach in New Zealand.
• "What was it like to be in the water with a 45-foot, 70-ton animal?"
• Scientist Has 'Snowball Fight' With a Killer Whale
• One-of-a-Kind Killer Whales Doomed by Exxon Valdez
• Watching Whales Watching Us
• Homunculus, I saw that story on MetaFilter and really loved it. Reading a story about sentience/intelligence/consciousness in animals always makes me kind of sad, though, because it's becoming increasingly clear that these are people (not humans, but people) and that we've treated them shamefully.
• Killer whales create and visit social clubs just like people do, scientists have discovered.
• Why not? They're social animals--they like to have meet-ups!
• Here's a podcast of the "Whales Have Manners" story. Amazing.
• Photographer has close encounter with pilot whales in the Strait of Gibraltar
• I didn't know whales blew bubbles as a territorial warning. Now I can sleep at night.
• Tail of a whale, snapped in 2 seas, reveals surprising wanderlust
• That's really neat that this could be documented. He [Stevick] said it is not known why the whale would have made the trip. Phillip J. Clapham...wrote in an e-mail that it was very unusual for a whale to travel so far. We've screwed up the oceans and decimated whale species to the point that a whale might have to travel that far to mate or feed. I love the Clapham's hubris--whales being huge, powerful, and intelligent creatures couldn't possibly do something outside a biologist's definitions of what their behavior should be. I would think it was a lot easier being a whale even 150 years ago.
• The concept of a whale exploring is very very cool, and gives them a degree of sentience we might have missed. Of course, when there feeding grounds are being decimated, and they being slaughtered by those who don't see them as social animals, looking for where man might not be is a smart move.
• Porpoises rescue Dick Van Dyke: Mary Poppins star feared death after apparently falling asleep on his surfboard but friendly sea creatures pushed him to shore
• whale thirteen sixty-three surely it's not mere need to feed that takes ye so far on this strange swimming spree what would ye look for in a new salt sea perhaps 'tis the prospect of new company ocean to ocean swims one cetacean through all commotion of turbulency now an answer comes drifting to me a whale in an ocean needs no invitation to shift habitation and swim sea to sea I fear ye must swim far from mankind and me so swim far and swim on may ye always swim free
• Sperm Whales May Have Names
• All right, I'm not going to sit here while you boys tell me what you call YOUR sperm.
• Saving Valentina
• A beluga with a halo bubble
• Luna, a wild orca boy, tries to communicate with humans by imitating their boat's motor!
• Humpback whale takes Australian couple on wild boat ride
• B-but didn't they ever post her video?
• Don't piss off the whales.
• Humpback whales like to remind humans how tiny we are
• That's frickin' fantastic. I'm sure I'd ruin the whales feeding by PEEING IN THE WATER!!
• Humpback Whale and Dolphin More: An Uplifting Dolphin Story. Literally.
• In it's own way, the whale is the dolphin's horse <:(!)
• Science Bulletins: Whales Give Dolphins a Lift
• Scientists amazed as Pacific whales turn up far from home
• These gray whales are on the verge of extinction but they are shot with cigar-sized tracking devices? Even if that's a sliver to them, isn't there a danger of infection? Why must we track them? Truly this is yet another irritating example of intrusion in this Age of Surveillance.
• The last whale is the loneliest.
• 30 Dolphins stranding and incredibly saved
• Visit from an Infant Sperm Whale
• Scientists free a whale shark from a fishing net in Indonesia
• Whale shark sucks fish out of hole in fishing net
• Whoa, dem whale sharks is smart. And they can sure suck down some lil' fishies.
• Researchers sneak up on sleeping sperm whales
• A Beluga With a Fine Taste in Art
• California man captures dramatic images of huge humpback whales just off shore
• The location in that story is less than five miles from me. I picked the wrong day to stay home. But seriously, Port San Luis and neighboring Avila Beach (where he probably was if he was 'driving towards Port San Luis' with a view of the ocean) was the site of one of this area's worst 'ecological incidents' 20 years ago this month when an oil company pipeline less than 100 yards from the beach sprung a leak and approx. 24,000 gallons of crude oil flowed downhill into the ocean, messing up local sea life (including some commercial salmon fishing) and tourism (a hotel shut down because it lost its beachfront). It was only a couple years ago that the locals declared that Avila/Port San Luis had fully recovered, and now it appears that the humpback whales totally agree. Good news.
• Unfortunately they are just passing through and wonder who crapped up the neighborhood.
• Hey, this year they spilled 26 thousand gallons into the Big Timber Creek, actually not all that big a creek, that flows by here, and nobody gave more than two hoots in the news. Oh, but this is New Jersey, and the whales don't much bother with it.
• Avila Beach/Port San Luis is the smallest harbor-or-bay-like area on this part of the coast, so it doesn't take much to screw it up. Morro Bay or Pismo Beach or San Simeon would've recovered a lot faster and easier. (Heck, there's a town on the south end of Morro Bay, Los Osos, which has been debating over installing a sewer system for 30 YEARS - ever since it was discovered the individual septic tanks at the houses near the coast were slowly leaching into the ocean... yep, living with it for 30 years - but there's never been much of a beach there - still, when I first moved here, I saw bumper stickers saying "I'm from LOS OSOS, the town that doesn't know shit!")
• Georgia Aquarium Beluga Plan Raises Whale Culture Questions
• The oceans used to be filled with noise
• How Fishing Gear is KillingWhales in the North Atlantic
• Requiem 2019: The last remaining blue whale comes eye to eye with its only enemy; mankind.
• Stemming the Rise of a Sea of Noise
• Noise pollution is ubiquitous. Pretty much. On our side of the deeps: leaf blowers are number one for not needed evil. At least the whales are spared that much, along with the leaf-mold spray... Poor guys, thanks to human society.
• Poor whales deal with ship engines, screws, pings, bangs and other noise pollution--that stuff really propagates through water. Noise pollution, light pollution, toxic waste, sewage, landfills--we are a pollution on the earth.
• These beautiful portraits of whales will make you weep at the wonder of the universe (no, really)
• Humpback Whales Learn New Tricks By Watching Their Friends: Behaviors are spread through cultural transmission in animals other than humans and non-human primates.
• Manatees have low self-esteem! You'd be depressed too: Manatees Are Dying Off, and Florida Is Determined to Speed it Up
• Divers Have a Surprise Encounter with a Humpback Whale
• Surfer knocked unconscious as 10-metre whale tosses Bondi boarders with its tail
• Whales almost eat Divers
• Young dolphin thanks fishermen after being freed from plastic bag
• Satellites Spot Whales From Space: This new method could help researchers remotely count and keep track of whale populations
• I'm sure there's a Douglas Adams joke in there somewhere. Seriously, this is neat.
• Girl gets slapped in the face by a whale
• Bagpiper Meets Beluga Whale
• Came for the whale, stayed for the pipes. Apparently the other beluga is more into hard rock or country.
• Well now, that's not good manners: A Whale Blasted an Ungodly Amount of Ass Ham All Over Some Divers