Happy new year! This January, we are happy to feature the Sowerby’s beaked whale, also known as the North Atlantic beaked whale (Mesoplodon bidens). This rare and elusive whale is quite understudied because it spends most of its life deep under the ocean’s surface, hunting for prey. Did you know that males sometimes compete with …
Welcome back to our Whale of the Month series! After taking a short break, we decided to introduce Sotalia dolphins this month. These mysterious dolphins live in both the sea and the rivers of South America. They include two species: the Guiana dolphin or costero, and the tucuxi. These tiny little dolphins face many human …
Life as a dolphin isn’t always easy, and predators are always lurking in the shadows of the deep ocean. Throughout their lives, dolphins may suffer diverse injuries, from shark bites to boat propeller wounds to even sunburns! But dolphins must recover quickly if they wish to survive in the ocean. Good news for our slippery …
Happy World Oceans’ Day, everybody! To celebrate, we are reflecting today on the humpback whales’ recovery and current threats. On this site, we’ve previously discussed both Humpback Whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) and international conservation efforts to protect whale populations after their decimation by the commercial whaling industry. Today, I wanted to bring these two together and …
Are humpback whales really not threatened anymore? Read More »
Ever since the creation of synthetic plastic in 1869, plastic has become an inescapable part of life on Earth. From large, bulky items to the invisible-to-the-naked-eye pieces, plastic circulates in the air, water, and even our blood and lungs. Today we are focusing on a new study that looked at microplastics in baleen whales off …
Scientists Found Microplastics In Baleen Whale Poop Off New Zealand Read More »
Happy holiday season! This month, we decided to highlight a shy little odontocete, the harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena). They are not known for grand displays in the water, but we wanted to do them justice this month because we believe they do not get enough love! These shy little guys face various human threats, so …
Whalecome to our new whales of the month: the dwarf and pygmy sperm whales. Like their cousin, the sperm whale, they like to spend most of their time deep underwater to hunt their favorite prey: squid and deep-sea fish, and crustaceans. Did you know they can release “ink” from their butts to confuse predators?! Find …
Kogia: dwarf and pygmy sperm whales – November 2021 Read More »
Stranding events (also known as beaching) involving cetaceans (whales, dolphins, and porpoises) have been documented since the 4th century. Originally, people considered stranded cetaceans a gift from the gods, providing food and other resources. However, today’s society has mostly shifted its vision of strandings to animals in need of human help. Most stranding events will …
Live stranding! How you can help beached whales and dolphins Read More »
Happy July! This month, we decided to celebrate the Yangtze finless porpoise. You might have heard of the Baiji, also called the Yangtze river dolphin. Sadly, the species was officially declared to be extinct in 2006. Yet, another freshwater species resides in the Yangtze River, and if you thought the Irrawaddy dolphin was the cutest, …
Did you know that you could assess the health of the Baltic sea by simply counting the number of grey seal pups? We explain to you how it works in this post. The Baltic Sea, between salt and freshwater The Baltic Sea is a little arm of the North Atlantic Ocean tucked away in northeastern …
Count grey seal pups to estimate the quality of the Baltic Sea’s food web Read More »
