Sightings of planktivorous elasmobranchs at their coastal aggregation sites are often linked to biological, environmental and temporal variables. Many large planktivorous elasmobranchs are also globally threatened species, so it is necessary to try and separate population trends from environmentally driven, short-term fluctuations. We investigated the influence of environmental variables on sig...

Surveys to assess cetacean presence were conducted in July 1995 and 1997 in the Gulf of Corinth, which is an almost-enclosed sea in Greece, Eastern Mediterranean. The dolphin sighting frequencies were high (0.043 sightings/km). Four dolphin species were encountered: striped dolphins (Stenella coeruleoalba), short-beaked common dolphins (Delphinus delphis), Risso’s dolphins (Grampus griseus) and...

The desire to see free ranging large carnivores in their natural habitat is a driver of tourism in protected areas around the globe. However, large carnivores are wide-ranging and subject to human-caused mortality outside protected area boundaries. The impact of harvest (trapping or hunting) on wildlife viewing opportunities has been the subject of intense debate and speculation, but quantitati...

This note is about three interesting 15th and 16th century sightings of comets in Kashmiri chronicles. We provide reasons for their identification as the 1468 S1, 1531 (Halley’s), and 1533 M1 comets.

IWC sightings surveys to obtain abundance estimates of cetaceans have taken place in the Antarctic since 1978/79. In order interpret minke whale from these and trial different search protocols for future cruises, Buckland-Turnock (BT) mode experiments were conducted during IWC-SOWER 2005/06, 2006/07 2007/08 cruises. BT is a particular configuration double-observer survey two configurations impl...

During 4 June-2 July 2004, the Norwegian R/V G.O. Sars conducted a multi-disciplinary survey along mid-Atlantic Ridge (MAR) from Reykjanes to north of Azores. This provided first systematic information on MAR cetacean populations. Using naked eye or 7350 hand-held binoculars, observers searched in 140° arc centred ships’ heading. Eleven species and 10 other taxonomic groups were identified 2,32...

Experimental evidence for and against the existence of pentaquarks has accumulated rapidly in the last three years. If they exist, they would be dramatic examples of hadronic states beyond our well-tested and successful particle models. The positive evidence suggests existence of baryonic objects with widths of at most a few MeV, some displaying exotic quantum numbers, such as baryons with stra...