Tag: whales

Whales’ massive weight and long lives help them play a key role in carbon storage. According to new research, this carbon relationship may help whales regulate climate change. Their size...

Blainville’s beaked whales rely heavily on echolocation to track down prey during deep dives under the ocean’s surface. They use clicks to locate squid hundreds of meters down, sometimes diving...

When North Atlantic right whales get entangled in fishing gear, it can have long-term consequences for their populations. Not only can the energy cost of carrying the gear around cause...

Efforts to save whales on the West Coast often focus on individual stressors—things like entanglements in fishing gear or vessel strikes. But since humans pose multiple threats to whales, researchers...

A good drone operator knows fairly well how long a whale stays submerged before it needs to take a breath above water. The flying device isn’t allowed to get within...

As the climate warms in the Arctic—two to three times faster than in the rest of the world—polar bears are changing what they eat. By uncovering their diets, researchers found,...

In 2015, the largest marine heat wave in the U.S. hit the Pacific Coast. Whales moved closer to shore to find prey, but they came across something dangerous—they were getting...

Decades of observations on humpback whales in the Gulf of St. Lawrence have revealed that low fish prey availability may be linked to declining calf numbers. “The number of calves...

Killer whales off the Pacific Northwest coast are rare. One population — the southern resident population — is endangered, down to just 74 whales. That makes it hard to for...

As oceans warm, more and more whales are straying into shipping lanes in search of food, researchers found, causing an increase in fatal collisions with ships. That includes blue whales...