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oceansinitiative.org @oceansinitiative.org · 26d

We still love Tui De Roy’s photo she let us use on the cover of @society4conbio.bsky.social!

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Blue whale news @bluewhalenews.bsky.social · 26d

Wow that is an incredible photo! Somehow I didn't realize that was the front cover for our paper!

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Blue whale news @bluewhalenews.bsky.social · 26d

Does anyone have any incredible photos of blue whales that you are willing to share for a special issue on blue whales, e.g. drone, interesting behavior, gorgeous backdrops, mother-calves, etc.?

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Blue whale news @bluewhalenews.bsky.social · Aug 25

Blue whale songs from the central/western North Pacific population heard in the Northern Marianas, peaking in June and December but relatively low call numbers and likely from distance animals. No visual sightings of blue whales in survey.

Source: doi.org/10.1371/jour...

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Blue whale news @bluewhalenews.bsky.social · Aug 22

Two new blue whale strandings off the SW coast of India in 2023
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

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Blue whale news @bluewhalenews.bsky.social · Aug 22

Blue whales not so great at turning corners, as measured by centripetal acceleration, only better than gray whales, while humpbacks are the clear champions (allowing them to produce tight bubble rings for feeding).
doi.org/10.1242/jeb....

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Blue whale news @bluewhalenews.bsky.social · Aug 22

Humpback whales are amazingly maneuverable, due to their extremely long flippers, and can turn on a dime. Blue whales are not too bad but clearly built for long-distance speed and not turning
doi.org/10.1242/jeb....

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Whale Tales @whaletalesorg.bsky.social · Jul 30

We are very excited to welcome Trevor Branch to the podcast this month. Trevor is a Professor at University of Washington who runs models and does research on a number of things including Blue Whales.

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Whale Tales @whaletalesorg.bsky.social · Aug 6

Trevor Branch blew our minds a few times in the latest episode of the #WhaleTalesPodcast with his facts about Blue Whales but his Fun Flipper Fact might have been the most insane of all! 🤯🐳😲
buff.ly/zLH7Y0N
#WhaleTales #BlueWhales @trevorabranch.bsky.social

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Whale Tales @whaletalesorg.bsky.social · Aug 13

We loved having @trevorabranch.bsky.social on the pod and are so happy that he shares his long awaited Blue Whale encounter with us! Read it on our website or listen to episode 83 🐳😍
buff.ly/B7A7AsK
Photo credit: E. Cabrera, Centro de Conservación Cetacea: CCC Chile
#WhaleTales #WhaleTalesPodcast

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Lindsay Curtis @lcurtisa.bsky.social · Jul 30

Very fun episode this month - @trevorabranch.bsky.social definitely blew our minds a few times with his incredible cetacean facts 🤯

Whale Tales @whaletalesorg.bsky.social · Jul 30

We are very excited to welcome Trevor Branch to the podcast this month. Trevor is a Professor at University of Washington who runs models and does research on a number of things including Blue Whales.

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Blue whale news @bluewhalenews.bsky.social · Jul 21

The formal decision from the Committee on Taxonomy with respect to reclassifying blue whale subspecies... separating N Pacific and N Atlantic, and grouping NE Pacific with SE Pacific, all strongly supported by genetics (and no support for current subspecies)....

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Blue whale news @bluewhalenews.bsky.social · Jul 18

My full arguments are laid out in the Intro to our paper:
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

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Blue whale news @bluewhalenews.bsky.social · Jul 18

As far as blue whales go no changes. Still includes B. m. indica as a separate subspecies (no genetic or other evidence). Still has N Pacific and N Atlantic as one subspecies (genetically separate). No subspecific status for SE Pacific (new papers show this is grouped with NE Pacific genetically).

Society for Marine Mammalogy @marinemammalogy.bsky.social · Jul 18

The Society for Marine Mammalogy’s Official List of Marine Mammal Species and Subspecies has been updated.

Visit the SMM website for the full list: marinemammalscience.org/science-and-...

Image: Uko Gorter 2025

#SMM #Marinemammal

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Blue whale news @bluewhalenews.bsky.social · Jul 7

Predictions of Antarctic, SW Indian, and SE Indian Ocean blue whale populations based on the extensive OHA-SIS-BIO network of hydrophones
doi.org/10.1038/s415...

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Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · Jul 7

New free book: "Marine mammal acoustics in a noisy ocean", looks like an incredible intro to how sound works in the ocean and an overview of some of the big outstanding questions and answers.
By Erbe et al.
link.springer.com/book/10.1007...

Marine Mammal Acoustics in a Noisy Ocean

This open-access book explores the potential impacts of noise on marine mammal species such as whales, dolphins, seals, seacows, and otters.

link.springer.com

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Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · Jul 4

Anyone have a copy of this "Proceedings of the Symposium on Marine Mammals of the Indian Ocean" Colombo, Sri Lanka, 1983

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Blue whale news @bluewhalenews.bsky.social · Jul 3

That difficult to answer. The mean is around 0.6 reported per year, translated in this paper to about 8-9 per year given the probability of detecting a dead whale. Other papers have higher rates like 20-30 per year.

The impact on population status is [Fig]:
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

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Blue whale news @bluewhalenews.bsky.social · Jul 3

3) Still, it would be a pretty hard sell to convince decision makers that it is worth spending more than $100M per avoided blue whale death per year, given the costs of slowing vessels down around the major ports of San Francisco, Los Angeles, and San Diego

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Blue whale news @bluewhalenews.bsky.social · Jul 3

2) There is considerable value of information: models from remotely sensed data are cheaper and more precise than models from ship-based surveys

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Blue whale news @bluewhalenews.bsky.social · Jul 3

Cost of saving blue whales from ship strikes on the US west coast? Slowing vessels to 5 knots, with 8 deaths per year applied to 3% of region costs $28-78M. To reduce to 5 deaths needs speed limits in 43-47% of waters and costs $581-1217M
doi.org/10.1016/j.bi...

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Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · Jun 26

I'm talking about how the fear of orcas affects baleen whales on Monday at Science on Tap in Seattle, always an incredible audience asking lots of interesting questions
www.scienceontap.org

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Blue whale news @bluewhalenews.bsky.social · Jun 25

Very cool online stranding database for Indonesia, includes 8 strandings of blue whales, run by Icha Mustika and others.
Paper: doi.org/10.3390/ocea...
Database: www.whalestrandingindonesia.com/new-database...

New database

Below is the database we have collected with the help of so many stakeholders in the National Marine Mammal Stranding Network. Since the Whale Stranding Indonesia initiative is largely voluntary,...

www.whalestrandingindonesia.com

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Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · Jun 21

Really cool study: detecting penguin and whale dives from the sonar on krill-fishing vessels in the Antarctic. Amazing graphics too.
www.pnas.org/doi/full/10....

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Trevor A. Branch @trevorabranch.bsky.social · Jun 21

"The greatest enemies of [blue whales] are whalers. And the narwhal or 'sea unicorn', a cetacean armed with a long pike, which pursues them, pierces them, and eats them."

Who knew???? ;)

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