Dolphins and Whales News

March 27, 2025

Top Headlines

Discovery: The Great Whale Pee Funnel Moves Vital Nutrients

Mar. 10, 2025 — Scientists have discovered that whales move nutrients thousands of miles -- in their urine -- from as far as Alaska to Hawaii. These tons of nitrogen support the health of tropical ecosystems and fish, where nitrogen can be limited. They call this ...

Genetic Mixing: The Secret to Killer Whale Resilience and Adaptability

Mar. 4, 2025 — Killer whale populations in low latitudes have high genetic diversity despite having low population densities, as a result of genetic mixing, which plays a crucial role in their survival and ...

Drone Captures Narwhals Using Their Tusks to Explore, Forage and Play

Feb. 28, 2025 — Using drones, 17 distinct behaviors of narwhals were captured in the wild. Findings reveal complex behaviors of the Arctic's iconic whale never seen before. This highly gregarious whale uses its tusk to investigate, manipulate and influence the ...

Eavesdropping on Whale Songs Sparks New Discoveries in Whale Ecology

Feb. 26, 2025 — Eavesdropping on baleen whale songs in the Pacific Ocean reveals year-to-year variations that track changes in the availability of the species they forage on, according to a new ...

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Unraveling the Mystery of the Missing Blue Whale Calves

Feb. 21, 2025 — Only two births of a blue whale have ever been recorded. Mother and calf pairs are also sighted much more rarely than might be expected. The reason, new research suggests, has to do with where and ...

Underwater Mics and Machine Learning Aid Right Whale Conservation

Feb. 21, 2025 — Using underwater microphones and machine learning (ML), researchers have developed a new method to estimate North Atlantic right whale numbers -- offering a potentially safer and more cost-effective ...

Scientists Harness AI to Help Protect Whales, Advancing Ocean Conservation and Planning

Feb. 11, 2025 — Researchers have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) tool that will help predict endangered whale habitat, guiding ships along the Atlantic ...

Some Species of Baleen Whales Avoid Attracting Killer Whales by Singing Too Low to Be Heard

Feb. 6, 2025 — New research finds some baleen whale species call at such deep frequencies that they're completely undetectable by killer whales, which cannot hear ...

Whale Poop Contains Iron That May Have Helped Fertilize Past Oceans

Feb. 6, 2025 — A recent theory proposes that whales weren't just predators in the ocean environment: Nutrients that whales excreted may have provided a key fertilizer to these marine ecosystems. Oceanographers now ...

White Shark Liver Is on Australian Killer Whales' Menu, Genomic Evidence Confirms

Jan. 31, 2025 — DNA evidence has confirmed killer whales in Australia hunted a white shark for its liver. Based on DNA analysis from the bite wounds on the carcass ...

Love Bites? Scientists Identify Pre-Mating Behaviors of Whale Sharks in Coastal Western Australia

Jan. 13, 2025 — Researchers have witnessed behavior in the wild which could reveal critical clues about how the endangered whale shark ...

Dolphins Use a 'Fat Taste' System to Get Their Mother's Milk

Jan. 21, 2025 — Juvenile dolphins were found to have specialized receptors for fatty acids on their tongues, offering new insights into their growth and feeding ...

Study Reveals Right Whales Live 130 Years -- Or More

Dec. 20, 2024 — New research reveals that right whales can survive for more than 130 years -- almost twice as long as previously ...

Using Drones, Researchers Assess the Health of Humpback Whale Mother-Calf Pairs Across the Pacific Ocean

Dec. 17, 2024 — Biologists used drone imagery to understand how nursing humpback whale mothers and their calves fare as they cross the Pacific Ocean. Recent declines ...

Exploring the Impact of Offshore Wind on Whale Deaths

Nov. 21, 2024 — Scientists have presented work examining the circumstances surrounding the whale deaths off the coast of New Jersey in the winter of 2022-23, which prompted concern that survey work in the area ...

Fewer Than 7% of Global Hotspots for Whale-Ship Collisions Have Protection Measures in Place

Nov. 21, 2024 — A new study has quantified the risk for whale-ship collisions worldwide for four geographically widespread ocean giants that are threatened by shipping: blue, fin, humpback and sperm whales. ...

One or Many? Exploring the Population Groups of the Largest Animal on Earth

Nov. 15, 2024 — Hunted nearly to extinction during 20th century whaling, the Antarctic blue whale, the world's largest animal, went from a population size of roughly 200,000 to little more than 300. The most ...

New Methods for Whale Tracking and Rendezvous Using Autonomous Robots

Oct. 31, 2024 — Today, a research team has proposed a new reinforcement learning framework with autonomous drones to find sperm whales and predict where they will ...

Sinuses Prevented Prehistoric Crocodile Relatives from Deep Diving

Oct. 30, 2024 — Paleobiologists have found that the sinuses of ocean dwelling relatives of modern-day crocodiles prevented them from evolving into deep divers like whales and ...

Dolphins Sense Military Sonar at Much Lower Levels Than Regulators Predict

Oct. 23, 2024 — Scientists have directly measured the behavioral responses of some of the most common marine mammals to military sonar. And the finding that surprised them most was that these animals were sensitive ...

Plastic Pollution Sounds Just Like Food to Deep-Diving Whales

Oct. 17, 2024 — To whales that hunt with soundwaves in lightless ocean depths, a torn plastic party balloon and a delicious squid may appear remarkably similar, according to a study. Underwater acoustic testing with ...

Microplastics Detected in Dolphin Breath

Oct. 17, 2024 — U.S. researchers have detected microplastic particles in air exhaled by wild bottlenose dolphins, suggesting that inhalation may be a relevant route of exposure to these potentially harmful ...

Whale Shark Shipping Collisions May Increase as Oceans Warm

Oct. 7, 2024 — Global warming could increase the threat posed to whale sharks from large ships, according to a new ...

Bottlenose Dolphins 'Smile' at Each Other While Playing

Oct. 2, 2024 — Dolphins are extremely playful, but little is known about how they -- and other marine mammals -- communicate during playtime. New research shows that bottlenose dolphins (Tursiops truncates) use the ...

Drone Footage Provides New Insight Into Gray Whales' Acrobatic Feeding Behavior

Sep. 25, 2024 — Drone footage is offering new insight into the acrobatics undertaken by gray whales foraging in the waters off the coast of ...

What's for Dinner? Scientists Unearth Key Clues to Cuisine of Resident Killer Whales

Sep. 19, 2024 — Scientists have discovered the cuisine preferences of two resident killer whale populations, also known as orcas: the Alaska residents and the southern residents, which reside primarily in the Salish ...

How Baleen Whales Have Adapted Over the Past 50 Million Years

Aug. 22, 2024 — The largest dataset of cetacean genes ever collated has helped scientists deep dive 'into the blue' to fathom the 'triumph' of baleen whale evolution. The new study explores the ...

Humpbacks Are Among Animals Who Manufacture and Wield Tools

Aug. 20, 2024 — Researchers suggest a new designation of the humpback whales they study: tool wielders. Researchers have known that humpback whales create "bubble-nets" to hunt, but they have learned that ...

Impact of 700 Years of Inuvialuit Subsistence Hunting on Beluga Whales

Aug. 14, 2024 — An international team of researchers analyzed beluga whale bones retrieved from archaeological sites in the Mackenzie Delta, Northwest Territories, Canada, to shed light on the sustainability of ...

Long-Distance Relationship Revealed in the Seemingly Random Behavior of Bowhead Whales

Aug. 11, 2024 — Applying chaos theory to the movement of iconic arctic whales uncovered a 24-hour diving cycle and a long-range (~100 km) ...

Scientists Using New Sound Tech to Save Animals from Extinction

July 30, 2024 — Scientists are using new technology to help endangered animals by listening to their ...

Researchers Record Images and Data of a Shark Experiencing a Boat Strike

July 24, 2024 — Researchers have captured what they believe is the first ever video of a shark or any large marine animal being struck by a ...

Whale Shark Tracked for Record-Breaking Four Years

July 24, 2024 — Researchers have been tracking a 26-foot endangered whale shark -- named 'Rio Lady' -- with a satellite transmitter for more than four years -- a record for whale sharks and one of the ...

Whale Remains Tracked to Highlight Sustainable Disposal Benefits

July 10, 2024 — A new study highlights the sustainable, cultural and ecosystem benefits of offshore removal or decomposition of whale remains. The study tracked the remains of a humpback whale that was intercepted ...