whales

Heavy Metals and Other Toxins Found in Stranded Whales and Dolphins

Heavy Metals and Other Toxins Found in Stranded Whales and Dolphins

A new study has detected heavy metals and other toxins in whales and dolphins that became stranded in Florida and Georgia over a 15-year timeframe. Researchers analyzed tissue and fecal samples of 90 odontocetes (toothed whales), spanning nine different species, that had stranded in Florida and Georgia from 2007 to 2021. In total, the team […]

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    Rescuers Race to Free Entangled North Atlantic Right Whale

    Rescuers Race to Free Entangled North Atlantic Right Whale

    Since the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) began documenting an Unusual Mortality Event (UME) for North Atlantic right whales in 2017, 36 of the endangered species are known to have died. Researchers are hoping an entangled female whale swimming in Cape Cod Bay won’t be one of them.  Along with vessel strikes, fishing gear […]

    Deep-Sea Mining Could Harm Whales and Dolphins, Too

    Deep-Sea Mining Could Harm Whales and Dolphins, Too

    Blue whales are the largest animals on Earth, but that didn’t save them when commercial whaling wiped out as much as 97 percent of their numbers. Today, the aquatic giants are still considered Endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature Red List, and while their numbers are increasing, they still face threats including […]

    Concerns About Whales ‘Just  a Cynical Disinformation Campaign’ by Offshore Wind Opponents

    Concerns About Whales ‘Just a Cynical Disinformation Campaign’ by Offshore Wind Opponents

    Offshore wind opponents along the Eastern Seaboard are weaponizing disinformation about whale strandings in service of their long-held political positions against offshore wind energy. Raising issues around the environmental impacts of clean energy is a common tactic of clean energy opponents, and the anti-wind claims come as social media companies (beyond just Twitter) are cutting […]

    Climate-Denying Groups Use Right Whales as Front to Oppose Offshore Wind

    Climate-Denying Groups Use Right Whales as Front to Oppose Offshore Wind

    One common tactic of renewable energy opponents is to emphasize the new technology’s environmental impact in a way that disguises the harm caused by what it is intended to replace. For example, wind power opponents often point to the turbines’ threat to birds. However, a 2012 study found that fossil fuel plants kill 35 times […]

    Whales Use Vocalizations to Mark Their Vocal Clan

    Whales Use Vocalizations to Mark Their Vocal Clan

    There are two types of whale: baleen — who have plates of a keratinous substance that sieve their prey from the sea; and toothed — who have teeth and hunt squid, fish and other sea creatures. The sperm whale is the largest species of toothed whale and can be found in all of Earth’s oceans, […]

    American Lobster Added to ‘Red List’ of Unsustainable Seafood Due to Dangers to North Atlantic Right Whales

    American Lobster Added to ‘Red List’ of Unsustainable Seafood Due to Dangers to North Atlantic Right Whales

    If you want to eat only sustainable seafood, American lobster (Homarus americanus) is now off the menu. The Monterey Bay Aquarium’s influential consumer and retail guide Seafood Watch has added the crimson crustaceans to its “Red List” of seafoods to avoid because of the dangers that lobster pots pose to critically endangered North Atlantic right […]