WaterNotes

Peter Tyack of Woods Hole took the TED Mission Blue folks through a spectacular view of the acoustics of whales and dolphins in his talk during the voyage. It was recently posted to TED.com and it may be my new favorite TED talk ever!  I am floored by the graphic representations of sound waves produced [...]

Long ago I posted on mercury contamination in beluga whales.  New research shows us the problem with toxic chemical accumulation in our apex ocean predators extends to sperm whales with habitat ranges far larger than the Arctic Ocean belugas call home.  Over a thousand whales were sampled over a five year period, revealing levels of [...]

Plastic Pollution Coalition has a brilliant guerilla-style grassroots campaign unfolding in Vancouver at the moment. Plastic Manners is also providing coverage and reactions from the public on the giant plastic six-pack ring found entangled across several of the marine-themed statues that grace the city.  I find the campaign brilliant and inspiring.  It’s hard to deny [...]

I’m pretty much speechless about this one. We hear about these impacts on our wildlife and we can theorize that baleen whales will scoop plastic plankton alongside the real stuff, but to see evidence of it really brings home the size of the situation we’re in.

If you’re a regular WaterNotes reader, you’ve been seeing a lot here lately about the ethics of keeping wildlife in zoos and aquariums. I’ve certainly tried to be polite while voicing my opinions, and I think my stance on it is clear:  I fall squarely within the “these animals are ambassadors for their species and [...]

Gnarly stuff to share this morning: killer whales going after pseudorca whales off the coast of New Zealand. A good friend of mine is currently visiting family down under, and apparently she was able to see much of this action in person!  (Lisa, if you’re reading this, I’m terribly jealous!) It’s not easy to tell [...]

Its been a rough few weeks in Florida wildlife conservation circles, particularly with our lovely sea cows, so lets take a moment today to share some positive things. The Monterey Bay Aquarium recently rescued a sea otter pup and brought her in to live with another resident otter. Daily Mail shares a number of ridiculously [...]