The discovery of  ipper tags from 14 Steller sea lions (Eumetopias jubatus) in the stomach of a dead killer whale (Orcinus orca) in 1992 focused attention on the possible role of killer whale predation in the decline of Steller sea lions in western Alaska. In this study, mariners in British Columbia and Alaska were surveyed to determine the frequency and outcome of observed attacks on sea lion...

This is the fifth article in our continuing series of biographical pieces with a technical lean (two vol. 1, issue and one each 1 2 3). The subject this paper noted microwave radar remote sensing pioneer National Aeronautics Space Administration Jet Propulsion Laboratory (NASA/JPL) Director, Dr. Charles Elachi. Without doubt, Elachi almost single-handedly pioneered field active from space. His ...

Whales are unique among vertebrates because of the enormous oil reserves held in their soft tissue and bone. These 'biofuel' stores have been used by humans from prehistoric times to more recent industrial-scale whaling. Deep-sea biologists have now discovered that the oily bones of dead whales on the seabed are also used by specialist and generalist scavenging communities, including many uniqu...

Genetic and modelling studies suggest that seasonal aggregations of whale sharks (Rhincodon typus) at coastal sites in the tropics may be linked by migration. Here, we used photo-identification (photo-ID) data collected by both citizen scientists and researchers to assess the connectedness of five whale shark aggregation sites across the entire Indian Ocean at timescales of up to a decade. We u...

Our current understanding of the spectral sensitivities of the mysticete whale rod-based visual pigments is based on two species, the gray whale (Eschrichtius robustus) and the humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) possessing absorbance maxima determined from difference spectra to be 492 and 497 nm, respectively. These absorbance maxima values are blueshifted relative to those from typical te...

Sperm whales (Physeter macrocephalus) produce multipulsed clicks with their hypertrophied nasal complex. The currently accepted view of the sound generation process is based on the click structure measured directly in front of, or behind, the whale where regular interpulse intervals (IPIs) are found between successive pulses in the click. Most sperm whales, however, are recorded with the whale ...