Between December 10 and 11 seven sperm whales washed ashore on the Italian Gargano Peninsula. It has taken a few days to sort through the data and speculations. Necropsies are being performed by Sandro Mazzariol of Padova University. Mass strandings…
Communication signals threaten marine habitat
Back in the mid 1970’s Physical Oceanographer Walter Munk was evaluating the acoustical transmission characteristics of the ocean “sound channel” – an isothermal layer in the deep ocean that baleen whales use for long distance communication. His visionary work in…
The economies of gratitude….
An November 2009 article in Nature looks at non-kin cooperation models in animal societies. It examines reciprocity, mutualism, and manipulation in economic terms – with future expectations, biological expense, and cheating included in some of the trade values. The overarching…
The Neutrino and the Whale
A nicely written article in the Dec. 3 2009 issue Nature reveals how a how a neutrino detection experiment conducted in the Mediterranean Sea by nuclear physicists actually uncovered an abundance of sperm whales. The experiment involved placing hydrophones down…
NOAA Launches another quiet research vessel
The National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries department has launched a third in a series of four fisheries research vessels designed around new, quiet technologies. Named “Pisces” NOAA’s Rear Adm. Jonathan Bailey says that the boat “…is so advanced…
Ocean on Air! Radio Interview
I have been invited by ‘Compassionate Trickster’ and Mythology Maven Caroline Casey to speak about the Ocean today. Caroline has a fabulous gift of weaving our contemporary political, cultural, and ecological events into the fabric of human archetypal and mythological…
US Warfare Training Range moves ahead in Florida
As it appears that the US Navy will be proceeding with the US Warfare Training Range (USWTR) off of Florida, I dug into our participation in the process to trace how these decisions are made. The original 554 page Environmental…
Come Visit the Whales of San Ignacio Lagoon!
We are gathering participants for our annual trip to the whale lagoons of Baja California! If you are not familiar with this wonderful phenomenon, it is an opportunity to “get up close and personal” with these iconic, majestic, and playful…
Norwegian fishermen get a little testy over seismic surveys
Norwegians have known for years that seismic surveys compromise fisheries. Some of the benchmark studies confirming this have come from Norwegian scientists.[1] While US fisheries interests have not been able to get much traction on this issue (for a host…