Archives for tag: right whale

Differences Between Sharks And Whales: Which Is A Mammal Or A Fish?

December 6, 2017 Roselyn Onuche Leave a comment Whale Information are whales mammals or fish, baleen whales, blue whale, facts about whales, fin whale, gray whale, humpback whale, largest whale on earth, largest whales, right whale, sei whale, sharks and whales, sperm whale, whale species

Drawing a clear line between Sharks And Whales can get confusing. Learn which is a mammal and which is a fish.

A Whale Shark: Despite being called a Whale Shark and sharing several traits with whales, this creature is a fish not a mammal.

If you are anything like most people, you would have at some point thought sharks and whales, especially the very large species, are similar or even related.

Take the example of the largest sharks and whales, for instance.

The whale shark and the basking shark are filter feeders, so are the grey whales, blue whales, and so on. They are

Is Underwater Sonar Harmful To Whales Or Not?

October 15, 2017 Roselyn Onuche Leave a comment Whale Information blue whale, Cuvier's beaked whale, fin whale, gray whale, humpback whale, military sonar and whales, right whale, sei whale, sperm whale, underwater sonar and whales, whale species, whale stranding

The debate about underwater sonar and whales has been on for years now. Here are the facts.

Row of military ships: underwater sonar

The debate about whether underwater sonar is harmful to marine life or not, especially cetaceans, has been raging for long now.

Active sonar (sound navigation and ranging), is the transmission equipment used on ships to assist with navigation. But this becomes a problem for some categories of marine animals for example whales and dolphins. That’s because these creatures use echolocation, or bio-sonar systems, to locate predators and prey.

It appears that active sonar transmitters can confuse these animals and even interferes with some of their basic

Species Profile: The Gray Whale

October 4, 2017 Roselyn Onuche Leave a comment Species Profile blue whale, commercial whaling, critically endangered whales, facts about whale hunting, fin whale, gray whale, humpback whale, right whale, whale hunting, whale species profile, whales, whaling, why do we hunt whales

The Gray Whale resisted capture so much that whalers named it “Devilfish.”

A Gray Whale In Captivity (Photo: Marine Mammal Commission/Wikimedia. Public Domain)

The Gray Whale is a medium-sized baleen whale and the only surviving member of its genus and family. This species is a migratory animal that travels annually between its feeding and breeding grounds.

These whales have a hump and a ridge of sharp bumps running down their backs rather than a dorsal fin. They also prefer to stay close to shore – feeding in shallow waters.

The common name, Gray Whale, comes from the contrasting gray patches and white mottling on its dark colored skin. The white patches are the result of barnacles and lice that have attached themselves to the whales’ skins. In

Species Profile: The Bowhead Whale

September 12, 2017 Roselyn Onuche Leave a comment Species Profile baleen whales, bowhead whale, right whale

The Bowhead Whale is one of the largest whales on Earth and it has the largest mouth of any creature on the Planet.

A Bowhead Whale Spy-Hopping In The Ulbansky Bay, Northwestern Okhotsk Sea (Author: Olga Shpak/Wikimedia Commons cc by-sa 3.0)

The Bowhead Whale is one of the biggest whales on earth and it’s a species belonging in the Balaenidae family. They live exclusively in the waters of the Arctic and sub-Arctic regions of the Earth.

It has a dark, stocky body, with a white patch under its lower jaw and it lacks a dorsal fin. Their heads are large, triangular, and so strong that they use them to break through thick sheets of ice in order to breath. Some Inuit hunters have even reported seeing bowhead whales breaking through up to 60 cm (24 in) of solid ice.

This whale gets its common name from its strongly bowed lower jaw and narrow upper jaw. These are filter feeders: instead of teeth, they have baleen plates for filtering prey after gulping large amounts of water. Interestingly, the bowhead whale has the largest baleen plates of any whale: about 3 m (9.8 ft).

Whale Collisions: The Little Known Danger That Ships Can Avoid

August 26, 2017 Roselyn Onuche Leave a comment Whale Information blue whale, how to avoid whale collisions, humpback whale, right whale, ships hitting whales, whale collisions

The risks of Whale Collisions increases with more marine traffic. But they can be avoided.

A Severely Injured Humpback Whale: Whale Collisions

A Severely Injured Humpback Whale (Photo: NOAA)

Whale Collisions have increased in recent years thereby putting pressure on an already threatened group of animals. For instance, collisions with oceangoing vessels killed more than 24 of the 67 right whales found dead between 1970 and 2007.

Many more collisions are not recorded or reported. This undermines efforts to help ensure that effective measures are put in place to reduce them.

Whale collisions are a serious incident because the impact causes severe injuries and even deaths to both the whales and sometimes the human beings using the vessel.

The most commonly affected whale species are humpback whales, blue whales, and the north Atlantic right

Dead Right Whales Are Turning Up In The Gulf Of St. Lawrence

August 20, 2017 Roselyn Onuche Leave a comment Whale Information critically endangered whales, dead right whales, dead right whales in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, right whale

Despite being the most endangered whales on the planet, 10 dead Right Whales turned up so far in the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

Right Whale Breaching Water: Dead Right Whales found in Gulf of St. Lawrence

A Right Whale Breaching Water (Author: Michaël Catanzariti cc by-sa 3.0)

In a phenomenon that has left marine biologists and scientists completely baffled, another Right Whale was discovered already dead in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. This brings the total number of dead whales to 10 within the space of a little over two months: June 7 to date.

Observers are describing this as unprecedented and “catastrophic” and that’s no exaggeration. That’s because this species is Critically Endangered.

In fact, these mammals are just a breath away from extinction.

There are currently just over 500 Right whales left on Earth!

The “unprecedented number of right whale deaths is very concerning,” Federal Department of Fisheries.

A Bit About Right Whales

Right whales are among the biggest whales on Earth. They are easy to distinguish from other very large whales. They have large, bulbous heads and are usually covered with rough patches of skin.

15 Facts About Whales You Probably Did Not Know

July 21, 2017 Roselyn Onuche Leave a comment Whale Information beluga whale, blue whale, facts about whales, Moby Dick, narwhal, right whale, sperm whale, whale species

Join us as we briefly explore the hidden world of these giants of the Oceans in our compilation of facts about whales.

Beluga Whales Can Mimic Human Sounds : Facts About Whales

Beluga Whales Love Music And Some Of Them Can Mimic Human Sounds.

The gentle giants of the Oceans are some of the most mysterious and awe-inspiring creatures we share our world with.

Whales have been around for millions of years before we humans even showed up.

Some species like the blue whale are so large that they would have little trouble sinking a modern day oceangoing vessel. Yet with all their massive size, they go about their business with so much grace and without causing a fraction of the havoc that humans do!

The 5 Biggest Whales On Earth

June 7, 2017 Roselyn Onuche Leave a comment Whale Information baleen whales, biggest whales, blue whale, bowhead whale, fin whale, finback whale, largest whales, right whale, sperm whale

Sperm whale. One of the biggest whales on earth

Whales are amazing, and large. In fact, the biggest whales are larger than the greatest dinosaurs that ever walked the earth. Here are some facts about them.