Mommy & Calf Whale Encounter

A Rare Albino Humpback Whale

has been spotted near Australia's Great Barrier Reef.

The whale's thought to be a few weeks old and was spotted by a local man.

He said: "I couldn't believe my eyes, and I just grabbed my camera. Then the white calf approached my boat, seeming to want to check us out."

White whales are rare - the reef's rep says there are only 10-15 among the 10,000-15,000 humpback whales living along Australia's east coast.

And it's even rarer for them to be completely white like this one.

From the BBC.

Dolphin News

Article: How far will dolphins go to relate to humans?

Kind Hippies and Whales in Distress: A Match Made in Heaven

This is a truly, truly amazing and heartwarming video. A guy on a small boat with his family (it's not entirely clear whether he's a real marine biologist, or has become an 'unofficial expert') finds a humpback whale hopelessly tangled in a nylon fishing net, unable to swim, and on the verge of drowning. Armed with only a small knife, a snorkel and a few hours, they try to set it free...

Now, let's not forget how huge these animals are.

It was actually incredibly dangerous to get in the water with it the way he did, a fact he acknowledges. Kindof. In a hippy-dippy free-the-whales kind of way. Anyway, watch to see what happened...

It's quite a coincidence I stumbled on this video today; you know Nick and I went to Tadoussac last weekend. Tiny town at the confluence of the Saguenay and the St-Laurent where fresh river water meets the salty water of the sea, which creates great conditions for krill and other whale-food. Long story short, there are tonnes of whales there. We went whale-watching in a little tiny boat, and it was just like in the photo - the whales were that close! We saw all kinds of whales. The biggest was a fin whale (second largest animal on earth), as well as dozens of frolicking belugas (they're an endangered species). Anyway, a wonderful experience.

We could even see them from shore! (i brought mommy's binoculars along, which was handy).

Anyway, I'm rambling. Long story short, whales are amazing, go to Tadoussac, watch this video.... possibly smoke a joint.

Whales may embed their name in clicks...

New information on the clicks via an article at Wired:

Rendell and his collaborators, including biologists Hal Whitehead, Shane Gero and Tyler Schulz, have for years studied the click sequences, or codas, used by sperm whales to communicate across miles of deep ocean. In a study published last June in Marine Mammal Sciences, they described a sound-analysis technique that linked recorded codas to individual members of a whale family living in the Caribbean.

In that study, they focused on a coda made only by Caribbean sperm whales. It appears to signify group membership. In the latest study, published Feb. 10 in Animal Behavior, they analyzed a coda made by sperm whales around the world. Called 5R, it’s composed of five consecutive clicks, and superficially appears to be identical in each whale. Analyzed closely, however, variations in click timing emerge. Each of the researchers’ whales had its own personal 5R riff...

Moreover, 5R tends to be made at the beginning of each coda string as if, like old-time telegraph operators clicking out a call sign, they were identifying themselves. Said Rendell, “It may function to let the animals know which individual is vocalizing.”..

That individual whales would have means of identifying themselves does, however, make sense. Dolphins have already been shown to have individual, identifying whistles.

The video above (not part of the study) has several minutes of clicks.

Mind-Blowing Photo

Also my desktop for the foreseeable future