Sighting of sperm whales in Arctic a sign of changing ecosystem, say scientists

Rare sighting in the Canadian Arctic as a growing number of species expand their range into warming waters

Leyland Cecco in Toronto

Mon 5 Nov 2018 17.03 GMTLast modified on Mon 5 Nov 2018 20.40 GMT

A rare sighting of sperm whales in the Canadian Arctic is the latest sign of a quickly changing ecosystem, say scientists, as a growing number of species expand their range into warming Arctic waters.

Brandon Laforest, a marine biologist with the World Wildlife Fund, and guide Titus Allooloo were working on a project monitoring the effect of marine traffic on the region’s narwhal population when they spotted the pair of large whales just outside Pond Inlet, a community at the northern tip of Baffin Island in September.

Video of the incident, released at the end of October, captures the second known sighting of sperm whales in the region. In 2014, hunters from Pond Inlet spotted them in the area.

At first, Allooloo and Laforest thought the dark shapes in the water were killer whales – another species that has become a frequent visitor to the waters as temperatures creep up. But the distinct shape of the dorsal fin surprised Allooloo – a veteran hunter.

“They’re not known by us, we don’t know too much about them,” Allooloo told the CBC.

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How ships bring agonising death to last Greek whales

Government promises action on collisions to avoid slaughter on busy shipping routes

Helena Smith

Sun 27 May 2018 07.05 BSTLast modified on Mon 28 May 2018 11.34 BST

In an office up a steep hill in a seaside suburb of Athens, a tiny blue light flickers from a computer terminal. Dr Alexandros Frantzis, Greece’s foremost oceanographer, points it out. The light, he says, tracks marine traffic “in real time”.

It is key to saving one of the world’s most endangered whale populations.

“Every few seconds it logs the position, course and speed of a vessel entering Greek waters,” he says. “And that is vital to mapping shipping densities in areas populated by sperm whales.”

Frantzis has spent nearly a quarter of a century studying marine mammals. His desk, like his small Pelagos Cetacean Research Institute, is testimony to a passion that has helped transform understanding of dolphins, porpoises and whales in a country where little was known about marine life barely two decades ago.

Shelves are stacked high with the bones of sea mammals big and small. The remains of a sperm whale’s lower jaw are propped against a wall in his back office. And in a room beyond, the skeletons of two whales – gargantuan, crusty and yellow – lie neatly assembled across the floor.

Read on  

Sperm whale 'clicks' help scientists understand behaviour

April 10, 2018

Australian researchers hope the audio recordings will eventually help them measure the number of sperm whales that use Antarctic waters

Scientists have recorded thousands of hours of "clicks" that sperm whales make to forage for food and communicate, helping them better understand the behaviour of one of the Southern Ocean's key predators.

Sperm whales, which can measure up to 20 metres (67 feet) long, are listed as "vulnerable" to extinction.

The Australian researchers hope the audio recordings will eventually help them measure the number of sperm whales that use Antarctic waters, which will in turn assist with efforts to manage their survival.

They recorded whale vocalisations over six years using custom-designed and built acoustic moorings, and found they had four types—slow clicks, usual clicks, creaks and codas.

"Slow clicks and codas are thought to be linked to communication, while usual clicks and creaks are linked with echolocation and foraging," said Australian Antarctic Division acoustician Brian Miller, who worked with ecologist Elanor Miller on the project.

Read more at: 

Whales are starving – their stomachs full of our plastic waste

Philip Hoare

Thirteen sperm whales stranded on the German coast had ingested huge amounts of plastic. They are symbolic of our shocking disregard for marine life

Wednesday 30 March 2016 13.52 BSTLast modified on Wednesday 30 March 201614.11 BST

In January, 29 sperm whales stranded on shores around the North Sea. The results of the necropsies (the animal equivalent of autopsies) of 13 of those whales, which beached in Germany, near the town of Tönning in Schleswig-Holstein, have just been released. The animals’ stomachs were filled with plastic debris. A 13-metre-long fishing net, a 70cm piece of plastic from a car and other pieces of plastic litter had been inadvertently ingested by the animals, who may have thought they were food, such as squid, their main diet, which they consume by sucking their prey into their mouths.

Robert Habeck, environment minister for the state of Schleswig-Holstein, said: “These findings show us the results of our plastic-oriented society. Animals inadvertently consume plastic and plastic waste, which causes them to suffer, and at worst, causes them to starve with full stomachs.” Nicola Hodgins, of Whale and Dolphin Conservation, added: “Although the large pieces will cause obvious problems and block the gut, we shouldn’t dismiss the smaller bits that could cause a more chronic problem for all species of cetacean – not just those who suction feed.”

The notion of these vast, sentient and placid creatures being stuffed with our trash is emblematic enough of the unequal relationship between man and sperm whale. The fact that the latter possess the largest brains of any animal that has ever lived only underlies this disconnection.

Our use and abuse of animals seems in inverse proportion to the almost ritual reverence in which we purport to hold them

Sadly, to anyone who follows the ongoing story of our impact on cetaceans, the terrible predicament of German whales is not new – although the scale of last January’s strandings is. In 2011, a young sperm whale was found floating dead off the Greek island of Mykonos. Its stomach was so distended that scientists believed that the animal might have swallowed a giant squid. But when they dissected its four stomachs (sperm whales, although predators, have digestive processes similar to ruminants), they found almost 100 plastic bags and other pieces of debris. One bag had the telephone number of a souvlaki restaurant in Thessaloniki. The scientists joked, grimly, that the whale could not call up to complain about the damage caused by their product.

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More sperm whales found dead - this time on a German beach

The whales were young bulls around the same age as 12 other sperm whales found dead in recent weeks at various North Sea spots

By AFP

12:34PM GMT 02 Feb 2016

Eight dead sperm whales have washed up on a German beach, just weeks after 12 of the giant mammals were found dead at other sites on the North Sea, officials said on Monday.

The eight whales found near the northern town of Friedrichskoog were young bulls, around the same age as the animals discovered three weeks ago at various North Sea spots.

They were lying close to each other in the mudflats of a restricted area of the Wadden Sea national park, the Schleswig-Holstein regional environmental authority said in a statement.

Since the 1990s, a total of 82 sperm wales have been found stranded in the Wadden Sea in Denmark, the Netherlands and Germany.

The sperm whale is the largest of the toothed whales, and the largest toothed predator.

It can measure up to 67 feet (20 metres) long and weigh over 50 tonnes.

"The males of this population spend their winters in the north Atlantic," the authority said.

"During their migrations, individual animals mistakenly wind up in the shallow and nutrient-poor North Sea."

The shallow water makes it difficult for them to use their acoustic orientation to navigate and many become beached.

Wildlife protection groups also blame the underwater noise from sea traffic and oil platforms for interfering with acoustic signals.

Continued ...

Why do sperm whales wash up on beaches?

Five sperm whales have washed up in England. They are thought to belong to the same all-male pod as 12 others that were found dead around the Netherlands and Germany last week. But what caused this mass death, asks Claire Bates.

Sperm whales are deep-sea mammals that tend to live and hunt at a depth of around 3,000m. While females and their young stick to the tropics, males range further afield and are regularly spotted around Iceland, Norway and Shetland.

However, they quickly run into trouble if they enter the North Sea. This is because it lies on the European continental shelf, where the seafloor is only 200m down at its deepest point.

Sperm whales rely on sonar to navigate. They send out sound pulses, which bounce back off distant surfaces, helping them to form a clear picture of their underwater world. This doesn't work on a shallow sandy seabed, like Britain's, and whales quickly become disorientated.

The answer

Sperm whales become disorientated in the shallow waters of the North Sea and become stuck on sandbanks.

"The pod probably followed a shoal of squid into the North Sea around the New Year and then got stuck," says Peter Evans, director of The SeaWatch Foundation.

"As they head south the water becomes shallower. Once they end up on a sand bank it's all over for the whale. It causes cardiovascular collapse and their organs start failing."

Andrew Brownlow, from the Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme, went across to perform an autopsy on one of the whales stranded off the Netherlands.

"The whales were in good condition and so hadn't died from dehydration, which can happen as they get all their water from their food," he says. "We were also able to rule out a boat strike or entanglement, which is a common cause of strandings."

"But we weren't able to look at the brains so we can't rule out various illnesses, or a sudden noise that scared them."

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Ahoy y’all: Sperm whale clans communicate in different, distinct dialects

SEPTEMBER 9, 2015

by Cat Wilson

The Encyclopedia Britannica defines dialect as, “[A] variety of a language that signals where a person comes from.” It also notes that class and occupation may contribute to dialects. Dialects show up in some interesting places, such as in American Sign Language (ASL), as catalogued by Ethnologue, a compendium of languages. And now, another notable variation has been discovered in a group of sperm whales around the Galapagos Islands. According to National Geographic, this group--consisting of thousands of female sperm whales and their calves--has sorted itself into clans defined by dialects, or a distinct series of clicks also known as codas.

Published in the journal Nature Communications, the study attempted to figure out what drove the clan structure, which had been observed, but whose formations were a mystery. According to the study, scientists have been observing the clans for more than 30 years. It is only in the last 18 that they have collected the empirical data which resulted in the finding.

A complex social structure

People have long debated and wondered what separates humans from (other) animals. Many theories have been proposed, among them language and the use of tools. Ars Technica reviewed a paper from the peer-reviewed journal Current Anthropology that even proposes our ability to wonder what separates humans from animals is the exact the characteristic that separates humans from animals. Thomas Suddendorf, author of The Gap: The Science of What Separates Us from Other Animals, quotes Bertrand Russell’s laundry list of aspects: speech, fire, agriculture, writing, tools, and large-scale cooperation, before neatly debunking most of them in turn.

Read more at

A Belly Full Of Beaks

Joel N. Shurkin, ISNS Contributor | April 21, 2014 07:10pm ET

(ISNS)--Marine biologists, probing two rare species of sperm whales, are establishing a baseline for the health of the animals and the environment they live in by rummaging through the stomach contents of dead whales.

It will be a way of getting data on animals scientists know little about, and keeping track of environmental changes in the ocean.

Michelle Staudinger, now adjunct assistant professor of environmental conservation at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, even sorted through specimens at the Smithsonian Institution for whales that died in the 19th century, although most of the specimens came from whales found dead on Atlantic beaches between 1998 and 2001.

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Extraordinary footage of Orcas attacking Sperm whales off Sri Lanka

Rare behaviour caught on film 

May 2013. Shawn Heinrichs, of Blue Square Media, went to Sri Lanka to film Blue whales, but caught some extraordinary footage of an Orca pod attacking a group of sperm whales instead. 

Orca can grow up to 10 metres long, but usually measure 6-8 metres, and males weigh 6-8 tonnes. Sperm whale, by contrast, can grow up to 20 metres long and wiegh as much as 50 tonnes, and possess the largest teeth in the animal Kingdom. 

It is not unusual for predators to take on prey much larger than themsleves, especially when hunting in a pack (think of lions and buffalo, or even giraffe/hippo), but this behaviour has never been filmed before. 

My advice is to turn the sound down, and turn some dramatic music on instead (Ride of the Valkyrie, 633 Squadron), Heinrichs is a better camera man than narrator. 

http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/orca-attack.html

Rare sighting of sperm whales in Firth of Forth

The largest group of whales thought to have been seen travelling together in or near the Firth of Forth has been recorded from the air. 

The pod of 14 sperm whales was seen on Thursday heading from the island of Fidra to the Lamb, just a mile offshore at North Berwick in East Lothian. 

The whales then changed direction, heading towards Crail in Fife. 

They were reported to the Scottish Seabird Centre by microlight pilots who saw them from a height of 500ft. 

The whales were also spotted by Scottish Natural Heritage staff and other researchers on the Isle of May who were able to identify the whales' tail flukes, dorsal fins and plumes of spray. 

“Sperm whales are rarely seen in the Firth of Forth”, Erich HoytMarine conservationist 

Erich Hoyt, North Berwick-based marine conservationist and author, said: "Sperm whales are rarely seen in the Firth of Forth, and to see 14 of them travelling together is very special. 

"The previous close sighting of sperm whales in North Berwick was exactly 10 years ago this month when a large sperm whale landed on the beach at Canty Bay, but this is certainly the largest group of living whales we've seen travelling together in or near the Firth of Forth. 

"Sperm whales are usually residents of deeper waters off the north and west of Scotland where they hunt squid." 

Tail fluke 

He added: "The images confirm that they are sperm whales, including a few that are either immature males or females. 

"Sperm whales in groups are usually either all males or females with juveniles and calves, so given the absence of calves and the location this is most probably a group of young males. 

"The one tail that is visible is consistent with a sperm whale tail fluke." 

David Pickett, Scottish Natural Heritage's National Nature Reserve Manager on the Isle of May, said: "This was a thrilling experience. We were able to get distant views of two pods of sperm whales, distinguished by the flattened dorsal fin, the way the plume of spray went forward rather than up, and their enormous size." 

Tom Brock, CEO of the Scottish Seabird Centre, said: "This sighting is truly wonderful news and helps to highlight some of the amazing wildlife that can be spotted right here on our doorstep. 

"It's thrilling that such a large pod of whales were seen so close to the Seabird Centre." 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-22342041

Scottish sperm whales - Animals not known to scientists

Giants of the sea - two strangers to Scottish waters

March 2013. Sperm whales photographed off the coast of North West Scotland recently have not been recorded in northern oceans before, confirms Dr Peter Evans, a leading cetacean scientist from the national marine research charity Sea Watch.

Sperm whale ID
Two of the five sperm whales seen between Loch Torridon and South Rona were pictured diving, enabling unique markings on their tail flukes - to be compared with a North Atlantic sperm whale catalogue of previous sightings maintained by Lisa Steiner of WhaleWatch in the Azores, but with no match.

There has also been no immediate match with sperm whales recoded in a catalogue by Marta Acosta Plata from Marine Research and Education Fund of Andenes in Norway, where sperm whales regularly summer. In addition, the pictures have also been compared with records from the Caribbean where sperm whales breed, and no matches have been found.

Dr Peter Evans said: "It is very exciting to have identifiable images of two individual sperm whales. They are rarely seen off the UK, and when they are seen they are often in waters which are too shallow for them to dive. It is only when they dive that we can photograph the flukes and see the individual markings which allow us to recognise them if they are seen again."

Read more:  http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/sperm-whale-id.html

A pod of five sperm whales sighted inshore off North West Scotland

Giants of the sea enjoy Scotland's warming waters

Two sperm whales dive in unison 

off the coast of Scotland. 

Photo credit Nick Davies.

February 2013. An extraordinary winter sighting of five Sperm whales off the coast of North West Scotland this week could be a reflection of climate change and warming sea temperatures, says a leading marine scientist.

The Sperm whales - one of the true giants of the oceans - were first seen by creel fishermen between Loch Torridon and South Rona on Monday. They initially thought they were Humpback whales and alerted boat operator Nick Davies from Hebridean Whale Cruises, based at Gairloch, who is involved in a project collecting cetacean (whale, dolphin and porpoise) data for Sea Watch.
 

First sighting

He went out to the location, and when he arrived was astonished to recognise Sperm whales diving together for food - the first time he has ever seen them.

Dr Peter Evans, director of marine conservation research charity Sea Watch, was able to confirm the sighting from his photographs and says: " In past decades, most records of Sperm whales in British waters have been of lone adult males around Scotland mainly off the Northern Isles and the Hebrides. Increasingly, however, adolescent males have occurred in our waters, sometimes in groups of 5-10 individuals.

Inshore
"Sightings of groups of Sperm whales have tended to occur mainly in summer so this winter sighting of a group is notable not just for the time of year but for its inshore location. The species normally lives in waters of 1,000 metres or more depth, beyond the continental shelf edge. Here they have sought out the deepest area of NW Scotland - the Inner Sound."

Continued:  http://www.wildlifeextra.com/go/news/scotland-sperm-whales.html

Charlie Naysmith, 8, Discovers Piece Of Whale Vomit Worth $63,000

An 8-year-old boy in Bournemouth, Great Britain, may have some gross profits after finding a piece of whale vomit that may be worth $63,000.

Charlie Naysmith was walking on the beach of Hengistbury Head when he came across a big hunk that looked like a yellowish beige rock with a waxy finish and picked it up, according to the Daily Echo newspaper.

With the help of his parents, he discovered his hunk was not a rock, but a piece of ambergris, a substance barfed or pooped up by sperm whales.

As disgusting as that sounds, the substance is actually in demand with perfume makers as it helps prolong the scent of perfume. That's why a pound of the whale waste sells for as much as $10,000.

Naysmith's piece of cetacean upchuck has been estimated to be worth as much as $63,000, but, according to his dad, Alex Naysmith, they are still researching the product.

“He is into nature and is really interested in it. We have discovered it is quite rare and are waiting for some more information from marine biology experts,” Naysmith, Sr., said, according to AsianTown.net.

That isn't stopping him from dreaming about how to spend his newfound riches. Currently, he is considering building some kind of a shelter for animals.

watch video here:  http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/28/charlie-naysmith-whale-vomit_n_1837241.html?utm_hp_ref=weird-news

Sperm Whales Form Clans to Fight Off Orcas

The threat of killer whales could be why societies of sperm whales in the Atlantic and Pacific differ so much, researchers say.

The sperm whale, the largest toothed whale, possesses the largest brain of any organism on Earth. These leviathans mostly live on giant squid and other creatures of the deep, pursuing them with the most powerful natural sonar known.

The sexes lead very different lives in sperm whales. Males leave their mothers to form ephemeral bachelor groups or to live alone, while females can develop complex societies with multiple levels of organization. At the most basic level of these societies are nearly permanent units of about 10 females that care for and suckle each other's progeny and defend their companions from attack.

Mysteriously, although the female sperm whale societies of the north Atlantic and the east Pacific are genetically similar, their social structures are substantially different. In the Pacific, units of females often temporarily gather with other units of the same clan — groups composed of thousands of females that share distinct patterns of vocal clicks known as codas. On the other hand, in the Atlantic, there is no evidence of clans, with units of females rarely grouping with others. Also, unit members in the Atlantic are more likely to be related on their mother's side than ones in the Pacific.

Read on:  http://www.livescience.com/19632-sperm-whales-clans-orcas.html

How to Make High-End Perfumes Without Whale Barf

ScienceDaily (Apr. 5, 2012) — University of British Columbia researchers have identified a gene in balsam fir trees that could facilitate cheaper and more sustainable production of plant-based fixatives and scents used in the fragrance industry and reduce the need for ambergris, a substance harvested from whale barf.

When sperm whales consume sharp objects, such as seashells and fish bones, their gut produces a sticky substance to protect their digestive organs. They then regurgitate the mixture -- much like cats throwing up fur balls -- and the vomit, reacting with seawater, turns into rock-like objects that wash ashore. These are collected and refined for their fixative properties. Called ambergris, the scented compound is added to high-end perfumes to help the fragrance stay on the skin longer.

The discovery was led by Prof. Joerg Bohlmann and postdoctoral research associate Philipp Zerbe at UBC's Michael Smith Laboratories. Details are published in the April 6 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

"The use of ambergris in the fragrance industry has been controversial," says Bohlmann, who is a professor of Botany and Forest Sciences. "First of all, it's an animal byproduct and the use of such in cosmetics has been problematic, not to mention it comes from the sperm whale, an endangered species."

Rad on:  http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/04/120405075357.htm