Fascinating Facts

Search and Destroy: Sperm Whale Echolocation

The Te Papa Museum in New Zealand has created a vivid, color animation that depicts how sperm whales find and capture their food in the dark depths of the ocean.

Marine Mammals Manage Decompression

(Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, WHOI)
How do marine mammals, whose very survival depends on regular diving, manage to avoid decompression sickness (DCS) or “the bends.”? Do they, indeed, avoid it?

Whale’s Treasure – Tales from Te Papa Episode 54

This episode from the Te Papa Museum in New Zealand explains how ambergris is made, how it finds its way into the ocean and how to do a quick test to find out if your beach discovery is indeed ambergris.

Inside Nature’s Giants: Sperm Whale

Veterinary scientist Mark Evans and comparative anatomist Dr. Joy Reidenberg dissect a Sperm Whale, which stranded and died on Pegwell Bay, Kent, England.

Poop In The Ocean: Who, Me?

(Ocean Health Index)
Marine systems welcome poop as a source of nutrients and food.

So, it turns out some whales have regional accents

Whales talk to each other using patterns of clicks called codas, and a new study suggests those codas vary significantly depending on which ocean a whale is from. In other words, patterns of communication between whales vary depending on what region they inhabit: Just like people, whales have accents.