Marine Mammals, features and articles | Educational Science

Oct 8, 2021

Lone beluga whale spotted 1,500 miles from home, and nobody knows why

There's a big white whale swimming off the coast of Seattle, and no one knows why. Over the past week, people in the greater Seattle area have spotted the white whale swimming around Puget Sound. The wayward cetacean — a beluga — is normally found in Arctic and subarctic waters....

Nov 3, 2021

Baleen whales eat three times more than scientists once thought

Earth's largest animals may eat even more gargantuan amounts of food than scientists thought, a new study reveals. Baleen whales — which capture krill, fish, zooplankton and squid by filtering seawater through their special structures in their mouths — may consume up to three times more prey than previously estimated,...

Dec 3, 2021

Real-life Moby Dick spotted off the coast of Jamaica

A rare white sperm whale, like the one depicted in the literary classic Moby Dick, has been spotted off the coast of Jamaica. Sailors aboard the Dutch oil tanker Coral EnergICE glimpsed the ghostly cetacean on Nov. 29, when Capt. Leo van Toly recorded a short video highlighting a brief...

Jan 21, 2022

Pod of orcas frees a humpback whale from certain death. Was it intentional?

In a strange encounter off the coast of western Australia, a pod of orcas seems to free a humpback whale from a rope entangling its tail. But were they really trying to rescue it? It isn't clear whether the orcas (Orcinus orca) were trying to manipulate the rope or why...

Mar 18, 2022

Nearly 30 pilot whales die after mass stranding in New Zealand

More than two dozen long-finned pilot whales have died after stranding at Farewell Spit, a remote beach on New Zealand's South Island where such strandings often occur. In New Zealand, long-finned pilot whales (Globicephala melas) account for the majority of mass strandings, where two or more whales or dolphins strand...

Apr 14, 2022

No, the Loch Ness Monster was not a whale's penis

One of the more bizarre theories about the origins of the Loch Ness Monster has been debunked by the researcher who helped to start the wild rumor: that long-necked Nessie might actually have been a whale's penis. The new theory surfaced April 8 on Twitter when Michael Sweet, a molecular...

Apr 26, 2022

Enormous beached sperm whale rescued in China. Will it survive?

A huge sperm whale stranded in the shallows near Ningbo, China, was towed back to sea last week after a strenuous 20-hour rescue. The whale's ultimate fate, however, will probably never be known. Strandings are difficult on sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus), and animals don't always survive even if they are...

Apr 26, 2022

Rare white humpback whale spotted swimming with dolphins Down Under

An extremely rare white humpback whale has been spotted frolicking with a pod of dolphins near the Australian coastline, according to aerial video footage. And it may have a rather famous relative. The ghostly cetacean was spotted on April 21 around 1,640 feet (500 meters) off the coast of Fingal...

May 20, 2022

Breaching humpback whale body slams boat in Mexico, injuring everyone on board

Watching a gigantic whale fly through the air as it breaches the ocean's surface is one of the most beautiful sights in the natural world. But for the crew of one boat in Mexico, that experience quickly turned into a nightmare when they got too close to a 7-ton (6.4...

May 26, 2022

Mysterious dead beaked whale covered in unusual injuries washes up on California beach

The corpse of a rarely seen type of beaked whale recently washed up on a California beach with mysterious wounds on its face and scrape marks all over its body. Experts are unsure what caused these injuries, how the whale died or even which species this pointy-nosed cetacean belongs to....

Jul 5, 2022

Spiraling vortex of 60 sharks rips apart a dead humpback whale in mesmerizing new video

Hypnotic drone footage shows a swarm of reef sharks ripping apart the floating remains of a dead humpback whale along the Australian coastline. During the feeding frenzy, at least 60 sharks can be seen swirling in a spiral around the blubbery carcass, but eyewitnesses say there may have been more...

Jul 6, 2022

What was megalodon's favorite snack? Sperm whale faces

If the giant, extinct shark megalodon had to pick a favorite meal, the winner would likely be sperm whales ... by a nose. In fact, sperm whale noses were popular snacks not only for megalodon but also for other ancient sharks that preyed on sperm whales, according to a new...

Jul 14, 2022

55,000 beluga whales are on the move, and you can watch their migration live

Is the summer heat getting you down? Cool off with a virtual dip into icy Arctic waters and watch as tens of thousands of beluga whales frolic in the frigid sea. Starting Friday (July 15), the research vessel Delphi will broadcast a beluga whale livestream, direct from the Churchill River...

Jul 22, 2022

Extremely rare white humpback whale washes up dead on Australian beach

An extremely rare white humpback whale recently washed up dead on a beach in Australia. The unusually colored corpse was discovered July 16 by local resident Peter Coles as he was kayaking past a remote beach near Mallacoota, Victoria. The humpback was around 33 feet (10 meters) long and has...

Sep 22, 2022

230 pilot whales beached in Tasmania — exactly 2 years after the area's last mass stranding

In an unusual case of déjà vu, a pod of some 230 pilot whales stranded on Tasmania's western coast on Wednesday (Sept. 21), exactly two years to the day after a different pod of pilot whales stranded on and near the same beach. The eerie timing of the stranding could...