A humpback whale swimming close to Hamilton Island, Australia on Monday gave quite the show to bystanders. In an effort aimed at attracting female attention, the whale leapt out of the water, twisting and slapping its tail.
August is prime mating season for humpback whales when they swim into warmer tropical waters to breed before returning Antarctic waters in September.
I don't know how many ladies he managed to attract, but he sure did attract the attention of a lot of bystanders!
Check out this amazing video courtesy of http://www.telegraph.co.uk.
Showing posts with label Whales. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Whales. Show all posts
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
Tuesday, August 17, 2010
Albino Humpback Whale Caught on Film Near Australia
This one definitely needs to be filed in the "stunningly beautiful" category.
A completely white humpback whale has been professionally filmed traveling south about 2 km (approximately 1.2-1.3 miles) from Green Island off the coast of Australia. This was the first time the whale, named Migaloo, was filmed professionally. Migaloo was filmed in Cairns on the Great Barrier Reef.
Pilot Chris Rose and cinematographer David Farmer obtained the footage of Migaloo. The BBC is reportedly making a documentary about Migaloo and the footage will be used for that.
For more information and to see a gorgeous photo of Migaloo (you must see this picture!!), you can read this article.
A completely white humpback whale has been professionally filmed traveling south about 2 km (approximately 1.2-1.3 miles) from Green Island off the coast of Australia. This was the first time the whale, named Migaloo, was filmed professionally. Migaloo was filmed in Cairns on the Great Barrier Reef.
Pilot Chris Rose and cinematographer David Farmer obtained the footage of Migaloo. The BBC is reportedly making a documentary about Migaloo and the footage will be used for that.
For more information and to see a gorgeous photo of Migaloo (you must see this picture!!), you can read this article.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
A Whale of a Story
When Cape Town Sailing Academy Administrator Paolma Werner and her sailing instructor boyfriend, Ralph Mothes set out for a sail this past Sunday they thought it would be another enjoyable and relaxing excursion. That is, until a 40-ton Southern Right Whale crashed into their 10-meter yacht, The Intrepid.
Werner and Mothes had been watching the whale for about a half hour when it moved to about 100 to 200 meters from the boat then disappeared under water. Next thing they knew, the whale was out of the water and crash against the mast of the boat. While the whale received minor injuries, the mast of the steel boat was destroyed and there was some structural damage. However, the damage wasn't severe enough to sink the boat or cause it to leak. The couple were able to get safely back to shore.
You can find out more information and see a series of 6 photographs taken by an individual on a nearby boat by visiting this article at MSNBC.com. To scroll through the photos, click "Next" on the left side of the page.
Some who have seen the photos and read the article believe this is just a really good fish story helped along by a bit of creative Photoshop work. What do you think?
Werner and Mothes had been watching the whale for about a half hour when it moved to about 100 to 200 meters from the boat then disappeared under water. Next thing they knew, the whale was out of the water and crash against the mast of the boat. While the whale received minor injuries, the mast of the steel boat was destroyed and there was some structural damage. However, the damage wasn't severe enough to sink the boat or cause it to leak. The couple were able to get safely back to shore.
You can find out more information and see a series of 6 photographs taken by an individual on a nearby boat by visiting this article at MSNBC.com. To scroll through the photos, click "Next" on the left side of the page.
Some who have seen the photos and read the article believe this is just a really good fish story helped along by a bit of creative Photoshop work. What do you think?
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Giant Whale-Eating Whale Discovered
In a coastal desert of Peru the massive skull and jaw of a 13-million-year-old sperm whale has been discovered. The whale is the extinct distant cousin of the modern sperm whale although, this this whale is a very different beast according to Olivier Lambert of the Museum National d'Historie Naturelle in Paris, France. Lambert led a team that located the massive fossil.
The whale, Leviathan melvillei has a 3-meter (10 foot) skull with teeth in the top and bottom jaws that are each up to 36 centimeters (14 inches) in length. Modern sperm whales only have teeth in the lower jaw and feed on giant squid. It is believed the fossil sperm whales are to have eaten by actually taking huge bites out of their prey instead of swallowing it whole as modern sperm whales do.
A large hole in the skull that accommodated a large jaw muscle further strengthens this belief. The fossil most likely fed on baleen whales and lived in the same waters as Charcharocles megalodon, the now-famous monster-sized ancestor of the Great White shark.
Researchers are focusing in on the teeth of the animal to learn more about its eating habits. Horizontal wear lines suggest it swallowed prey like modern sperm whales. Vertical wear lines suggest it bit into prey.
For more information and to see an artists rendition of what Leviathan melvillei might have looked like, you can read this article.
The whale, Leviathan melvillei has a 3-meter (10 foot) skull with teeth in the top and bottom jaws that are each up to 36 centimeters (14 inches) in length. Modern sperm whales only have teeth in the lower jaw and feed on giant squid. It is believed the fossil sperm whales are to have eaten by actually taking huge bites out of their prey instead of swallowing it whole as modern sperm whales do.
A large hole in the skull that accommodated a large jaw muscle further strengthens this belief. The fossil most likely fed on baleen whales and lived in the same waters as Charcharocles megalodon, the now-famous monster-sized ancestor of the Great White shark.
Researchers are focusing in on the teeth of the animal to learn more about its eating habits. Horizontal wear lines suggest it swallowed prey like modern sperm whales. Vertical wear lines suggest it bit into prey.
For more information and to see an artists rendition of what Leviathan melvillei might have looked like, you can read this article.
Saturday, May 15, 2010
Gray Whale Sighting--On the Wrong Side of the World
No, this isn't the plot for the next Free Willy movie. A good friend sent me the link to this article and I knew right away I'd have to talk about it!
When researchers from the Israel Marine Mammal Research and Assistance Center (IMMRAC) went out to study a whale last Saturday everything seemed normal at first. The whale wasn't behaving strangely and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. For almost two hours they observed the whale and, at first, believed it to be a sperm whale. That in itself would have been exciting as a sperm whale has never before been sighted in that area. However, things seemed a bit strange. The blowhole of the whale wasn't located where it should have been to be a sperm whale and the dorsal region wasn't wrinkled as it is on a sperm whale. The researchers took some photographs and returned to shore. After closely examining the photographs they learned they had been watching a gray whale all that time.
What is so remarkable about that?
Gray whales do not live near Israel, or the Mediterranean. There aren't any gray whales in the Atlantic and haven't been since the eighteenth century. Gray whales are known to live in the western and eastern Pacific and number roughly around 20,200. Neither location is anywhere near Israel or the Mediterranean.
Still, researchers say there is no doubt a gray whale was seen in waters off Israel. According to Phillip Clapham of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration there are two possible explanations for the whale sighting: a relict population in the North Atlantic that no one has noticed or that the whale came down through the ice-free Northwest Passage and is lost. The latter explanation seems most likely.
Clapham believes that with the Northwest Passage opening up in coming years due to warming temperatures that this gray whale will not be the last to make it from the waters where they normally live to new waters.
If you would like to read more about this amazing sighting and see three of the photographs of this gray whale taken by IMMRAC check out this article.
When researchers from the Israel Marine Mammal Research and Assistance Center (IMMRAC) went out to study a whale last Saturday everything seemed normal at first. The whale wasn't behaving strangely and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. For almost two hours they observed the whale and, at first, believed it to be a sperm whale. That in itself would have been exciting as a sperm whale has never before been sighted in that area. However, things seemed a bit strange. The blowhole of the whale wasn't located where it should have been to be a sperm whale and the dorsal region wasn't wrinkled as it is on a sperm whale. The researchers took some photographs and returned to shore. After closely examining the photographs they learned they had been watching a gray whale all that time.
What is so remarkable about that?
Gray whales do not live near Israel, or the Mediterranean. There aren't any gray whales in the Atlantic and haven't been since the eighteenth century. Gray whales are known to live in the western and eastern Pacific and number roughly around 20,200. Neither location is anywhere near Israel or the Mediterranean.
Still, researchers say there is no doubt a gray whale was seen in waters off Israel. According to Phillip Clapham of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration there are two possible explanations for the whale sighting: a relict population in the North Atlantic that no one has noticed or that the whale came down through the ice-free Northwest Passage and is lost. The latter explanation seems most likely.
Clapham believes that with the Northwest Passage opening up in coming years due to warming temperatures that this gray whale will not be the last to make it from the waters where they normally live to new waters.
If you would like to read more about this amazing sighting and see three of the photographs of this gray whale taken by IMMRAC check out this article.
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