Fin Whales - Greyhounds of the Sea - 20 Knots Easy

CERSI, based in Sept-îles, reports: Two fin whales were seen swimming a linear trajectory in a synchronized manner, one behind the other. Swimming powerfully and rapidly, the animals dived for only short periods just beneath the surface. Their heads and blows created an explosive noise each time they surfaced. The two fin whales maintained formation for 10 breathing sequences out of 12: one behind the other, with the lead animal slightly to the right. The research team was not able to track the whales for very long; they covered two nautical miles in six minutes at a speed of 20 knots (37 km/hr).

Source: http://www.whales-online.net/eng/FSC.html?sct=1&pag=1-1-1.html

Humpback Routes In Pacific by NOAA

NOAA has a new map of travel routes of Humpback whales in the Pacific.

Excellent scientific evidence that for these whales, the Pacific, and maybe more, is theirs, their *land* has we would say. Entire oceans are where they live.

Cachalot Starring on YouTube

Link to a video on YouTube showing a Cachalot, aka. Sperm Whale, touching an underwater robot.

Marine Mammal Bibliography

Great new site with weekly listing of new scientific publications on marine mammals:
http://www.mmbib.com/news.html

Alex the parrot died recently - Pathology Results

Alex, the one on the right, was a parrot, not a cetacean, but was extremely important in cognition and language research in all of history. The works of Dr Irene Pepperberg and her team were recognized by all major English-speaking science news channels when Alex died Sept. 6, 2007. We are supporting them in this difficult period and also supporting the continuation of their research with their other two younger parrots.

http://www.alexfoundation.org/

Posted on http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/AlexFoundation/ by: "Jaimi @ The Alex Foundation" greyburd@remembering-alex.org
Thu Oct 4, 2007 9:01 am (PST)

Alex died quickly. He had a sudden, unexpected catastrophic event associated with arterosclerosis ("hardening of the arteries"). It was either a fatal arrhythmia, heart attack or stroke, which caused him to die suddenly with no suffering. There was no way to predict his demise. All of his tests, including his cholesterol level and as per levels, came back normal earlier that week. His death could not be connected to his current diet or his age; our veterinarian said that she has seen similar events in young (<10 year old) birds on healthy diets. Most likely, genetics or the same kind of low-level (impossible to detect in birds as yet) inflammatory disease that is related to heart disease in humans was responsible. We will have no further information.