Marine Mammals
What Is the Sound of 130 Wind Turbines Turning?
Federal officials examined a long list of potential impacts from the nation’s first offshore wind farm, slated to begin construction…
Read MoreStudy Amplifies Understanding of Hearing in Baleen Whales
For decades, scientists have known that dolphins and other toothed whales have specialized fats associated with their jaws, which efficiently convey sound waves from the ocean to their ears. But until now, the hearing systems of their toothless grazing cousins, baleen whales, remained a mystery, largely because specimens to study are hard to get. Now, a new study by scientists at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution has shown that some baleen whales also have fats leading to their ears.
Read MoreFats In Whales’ Heads May Help Them Hear
For decades, scientists have known that dolphins and other toothed whales have specialized fats associated with their jaws, which efficiently…
Read MoreThe Great South Channel
When people are hungry, they go to a place where they know they can find their favorite food. Right whales…
Read MoreWhale Heads and Tales
It’s a Saturday morning at Herring Cove Beach in Provincetown, Mass., the farthest point on the Cape. I am sleepy,…
Read MoreThe Latest Fashion in Bowhead Whale Songs
Whales, it turns out, are dedicated followers of fashion. There’s a style to the song they sing to attract mates,…
Read MoreStranded Dolphins Exhibit Bubbles, and Ability to Recover
In a study published online in the Proceedings of the Royal Society B, a team that includes researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) has confirmed that bubbles do form in live, stranded dolphins. But in many cases, those animals are able to manage those bubbles and can resume relatively normal lives of swimming and diving in the ocean.
Read MoreAre Whales ‘Shouting’ to be Heard?
When we’re talking with friends and a truck rumbles by or someone cranks up the radio, we talk louder. Now…
Read MoreCarousel Feeding
Orcas coordinate their movements, and possibly communicate, as they herd schools of herring into tight masses and then slap their…
Read MoreTara Hetz
Tara Hetz has gotten to see a different side of Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) from her Summer Student Fellow…
Read MoreTo Free a Tangled Whale
Buoys Help Avert Whale-Ship Collisions
By Lonny Lippsett :: Originally published online July 22, 2009
Read MoreBuoys Help Avert Whale-Ship Collisions
A lot of lines crisscross, run parallel, and ultimately connect in this story. The first line is a watery one…
Read MoreSkip This Cocktail Party: Contaminants in Marine Mammals’ Brains
The most extensive study of pollutants in marine mammals’ brains reveals that these animals are exposed to a hazardous cocktail…
Read MoreWHOI Team Aids Center for Coastal Studies in Whale Disentanglement
On Monday, May 4, a team of researchers from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) was working in the Great…
Read MoreLetters to the Editor
=We welcome letters from our readers to discuss material published in Oceanus magazine and will publish a selection of letters online and in forthcoming printed issues of Oceanus.
Read MoreSupreme Court Weighs in on Whales and Sonar
Arguments about the impact of Navy sonar on marine mammals rose to the highest court in the land last fall.…
Read MoreRight whale sedation enables disentanglement effort
On Friday, March 6, 2009, for the first time ever, a North Atlantic right whale that had been severely entangled…
Read MoreLearning How a Porpoise Locates Prey
In these experimental trials on a captive porpoise at the Fjord & Baelt Center in Denmark, a trainer on one…
Read MoreA Tag Fit for a Porpoise
In 2003, Stacy DeRuiter arrived as a graduate student at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI), where a new device developed…
Read MoreNorth Atlantic Right Whale
Dr. Michael Moore talks about the North Atlantic Right Whale and what the future may hold for this endangered charismatic…
Read MoreNew Marine Mammal Center Formed at Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) has announced the formation of a new center for marine mammal research and conservation…
Read MoreSea Life Is Accumulating Pathogens
An unprecedented survey of seabirds, marine mammals, and sharks on the U.S. East Coast has revealed that marine wildlife contains…
Read MoreCheetahs of the Deep
A new study has revealed that pilot whales are “the cheetahs of the deep sea,” making high-speed, all-or-nothing dives to…
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