A group of eleven little penguins emerging from the sea on the beach after a foraging trip and heading towards the colony.
🦤🌐🧪
How do penguins track their prey? GPS monitoring over 13 years showed they forage in a restricted area to reduce search times but keep changing exact locations (at 2km scale) to adapt to the dynamic environmental conditions.
bit.ly/meps15047
Humpback whale breaching in front of the New Caledonian coastline.
New paper on age-related reproductive tactics & success in humpback whales, published in Current Biology.🐳🧬
doi.org/10.1016/j.cu...
#marmam @seamammalresearch.bsky.social @uniofstandrews.bsky.social @ellengarland.bsky.social @emma-carroll.bsky.social @clairenea.bsky.social @lrendell.bsky.social 1/7
Fighter jet https://www.nasa.gov/aeronautics/xf-92a-delta-wing/
How do blue whales stop themselves tipping over when they inflate their lower jaw to engulf krill? The upper jaw! The triangular shape of the upper jaw keeps them swimming forward, acting like the delta-shaped wings of a fighter jet
Fish et al. 2026: doi.org/10.1111%2Fmm...
You asked for it… SMM is delivering!
We are officially kicking off the Society for Marine Mammalogy Virtual Seminar Series: a brand-new, members-only initiative designed to help you learn, discover, and connect with the global marine mammal community.
#whaleontology 🐬🦖New blog post - public lecture on the evolution of whales and dolphins revealed by fossils from the Pacific Northwest, and the origin of baleen. Full recorded lecture is up on youtube! Read the post, and watch the video, here:
🐳 Ship strikes kill an estimated 10,000 marine mammals around the world each year. To help mariners become better stewards of the sea, WHOI researchers are developing breakthrough technologies like thermal imaging and acoustic buoys.
📲Go behind the scenes of innovation: go.whoi.edu/whale-aware
Hiiii!!
Fantastic opportunity to work with us at Shark Bay Dolphin Research 👇🏻
Southern right whale recovery reverses as reproduction declines, which could be the result of climate change, scientists say.
share.google/cxVKUdqaZD8V...
#worldwhaleday Last week I was invited by @paleowin.bsky.social to give a lecture at her institution (SWOCC) on the evolution of whales. If you want to learn about about the origin of baleen and the importance of fossils from the Pacific Northwest, watch here: 🐬🦖🧪 www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7jg...
Aerial view of two whales swimming in shimmering green ocean water, sunlight reflecting on the surface. One whale raises its fluke near the top left. Stock image.
A study in Scientific Reports suggests the observed decline in reproductive success of the western Australian population of southern right whales is influenced by environmental changes in mid- and high-latitude feeding grounds. go.nature.com/3MDSqfS 🌊 🌍 🧪
Today, the Trump administration repealed the endangerment finding: the ruling that served as the basis for limits on tailpipe emissions and power plant rules. Without it, we’ll be less safe, less healthy and less able to fight climate change—all so the fossil fuel industry can make even more money.
Interesting piece by @petrastock.bsky.social in @theguardian.com on the slowdown of calving in the Southern #rightwhales at the Head of the Bight, South Australia.
From a new scientific paper led by Claire Charlton
Open Access link in the article.
🐳🌍🦑🧪
NEW PAPER (OPEN ACCESS): How could future climate scenarios may affect the distribution of dolphins and porpoises in the North Atlantic? Here, we modeled the current and future distributions of small cetaceans in the North Atlantic under 3 climate scenarios: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Japan’s went non-IWC, Iceland is non-fin whales, Norway is whaling but 200 or 300 minkes, so… ???
As mentioned in the article, the #IWC turned 80 this year. The whaling moratorium turned 40
So, for the first half its existence it was a whalers' club. For the second half it's been driven by the moratorium, which has minimized commercial whaling.
What comes next?
🐳🌍🦑
New scientific review highlights the complex and culturally rich social lives of beluga whales: #belugas live in multilevel, dynamic societies shaped by kinship, sex, and culture. www.raincoast.org/2026/02/soci...
Another new paper led by SMRU's @izzylangley.bsky.social: First observations of grey seal cannibalism at Sable Island, inc. a comparison of carcass pathology to cases in Scotland. Collab between SMRU, DFO and @dalhousie.bsky.social with support from @oceanfrontier.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1111/mms....
🐋 Loved having a chat about bubble netting humpbacks on @npr.org's Science Desk with Nate Rott! As a *major* NPR Tiny Desk fan... can someone tell me is this the scientists' equivalent?! 🤪
www.npr.org/2026/01/28/n...
Side-on photograph of an Antarctic blue whale in the water. There is a white mark around the dorsal fin. Photograph taken by Taryn Lawson, HX Expeditions.
Image of the dorsal fin and flank of an Antarctic blue whale swimming away from the camera. A white mark is visible around the dorsal fin and lower on the back. Photograph taken by Ruben Fijn, Oceanwide Expeditions
Great news from South Georgia, where an Antarctic blue #whale photographed in 2019 has been re-sighted in 2026! Whale “Magrathea” comes from a small but growing photo-ID catalogue (42 individuals) of this Critically Endangered whale at #SouthGeorgia, collected by visitors & researchers
Image by Dr Fredrik Christiansen, Senior Researcher PhD, MSc, BSc Marine Mammal Research, Department of Ecoscience Aarhus University
Our recent study in Ecological Modelling shows that southern right whale mother-calf pairs leave calving grounds once calves reach ~8 m in length, not after a fixed time. Larger, fatter mothers help calves reach departure size faster! 🐋⚡
Read it here:
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... 🌐🌏🌱🧪
🚨 NEW PUBLICATION! 🐳🎉
Our new review paper, now published in Mammal Review, maps the the literature focusing on threats to 19 marine mammal species, to summarise volume of research, and highlight knowledge gaps (for species, locations, threats).
Read it here: doi.org/10.1111/mam....
Congratulations!!
A top predator on the run! New paper on aversive responses of killer whales to the sounds of long-finned pilot whales – out now in Scientific reports – open access: www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Below a short summary of the main results.
🔈🐳🤓
#bioacoustics #MarineMammals #whales
Last few days until we close the abstract submission! See you soon in Puerto Rico.
www.smmconference.org/abstract-sub...
Preprint: our systematic review of hybrids between blue whales and fin whales. There are 46 possible cases, of which 17 have been genetically confirmed (15 from the North Atlantic!)
doi.org/10.22541/au....
I wrote this song on Saturday, recorded it yesterday and released it to you today in response to the state terror being visited on the city of Minneapolis. It’s dedicated to the people of Minneapolis, our innocent immigrant neighbors and in memory of Alex Pretti and Renee Good.
Stay free
We have the power to stop ICE from terrorizing communities and putting lives at risk.
It’s time for the Senate to step up.
Vector illustration of Megabalaena sapporoensis, a large archaic balaenid whale from the seas around Miocene Japan. The whale is seen from above with its mouth open showing off its baleen. The whale is black with white patches on its belly, back, snout and tail. Text reads: Megabalaena sapporoensis. Yoshihiro Tanaka, Toshiyuki Kimura, Tatsuya Shinmura, Hiroto Ohia and Hitoshi Furusawa. "A new member of a large and archaic balaenid from the Late Miocene of Sapporo, Hokkaido, Japam partly fills a gap of right whale evolution". Palaeontologia Electronica 28, no. 2 (2025): 1-59. Aug 21 2025
#Cenozoicpaleo2025 Meet Megabalaena sapporoensis!
#paleoart #vectorart #rightwhale
