Killer Whales, Humpbacks, Greys, Dolphins and Porpoise

Transient Bigg’s Orca, including probably T087, have been making short appearances interspersed with some other Killer Whales’ appearances. We have some more Humpback Whales popping out of the water and a few more Grey Whales creeping up the coast. Pacific White Sided Dolphins have been spotted bowriding a few boats, but are not staying in any one area, for now. A few shy Harbour Porpoise bring up the last of this report which has no submitted photos but some interesting videos. 
Susan MacKay, Wild Ocean Whale Society

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This week, the Magazine focuses on Dolphins with a series of articles and videos covering the birth, language, feeding, intellect and death of the animals we humans have found so mysterious and appealing throughout our history.
Our look includes:
– Video of a dolphin birth witnessed by passengers on a Whale Watching Excursion
– Breaking the communication barrier between dolphins and humans
– Dramatic Video of Dolphins feeding on a Herring ball off Cornwall, UK, and a
– Dolphin stampede off Southern California
– A Risso’s dolphin has washed up at Tlel Beach, on Haida Gwaii
– Efforts to reduce Dolphin mortality from the Sword Fishery off California and in small scale artisanal fishery in Africa
and finally we learn about
– The history of Cold War Dolphin Soldiers, in light of the publication of a recent Russian tender to purchase Bottle Nose dolphins for new military duties.

REGIONAL & WEST COAST

A tour boat of whale watchers were treated to a rare sight off the Dana Point coast on Thursday, as hundreds of dolphins were spotted porpoising at high speed in the ocean.
Porpoising – in which marine mammals jump repeatedly above the surface as they swim rapidly – helps dolphins swim faster because of the lower resistance in air than water.

The crew and passengers didn’t know what to make of it – a group of false killer whales, a type of large dolphin, swam up and began bumping their whale watching boat Saturday off the Dana Point coast.

As people tried to hold their cameras steady, a female false killer whale bobbed in the water nearby. Blood rose to the surface, followed by the weak, curved dorsal fin of the mother’s new calf.

In a moment not often captured on video, let alone seen on a whale watching trip, the passengers and crew of Captain Dave’s Dolphin and Whale Watching Safari witnessed a marine mammal giving birth in the open ocean.

Years of unusually warm water in the northeast Pacific have led to large algae blooms, and biologists are concerned they could be sending algae-produced toxins, such as demoic acid, up the food chain.
This past year, an unusually high number of dead cetaceans have washed up on the B.C. and Alaska coasts, and algal toxins are a possible cause.
They are usually swimming a kilometre or more offshore from Haida Gwaii or Vancouver Island.
Risso’s are among the larger dolphins, with adult males reaching lengths up to four metres…..

Last week, the Russian state department issued an unusual request: A call to recruit five dolphins. And this isn’t the first time Russia has trained a military dolphin unit. Science historian Graham Burnett dives into the history of military dolphins.

Off California’s southern coast, a small fleet of commercial fishing boats hunts for the majestic swordfish by using milelong drift gillnets that form floating walls through the sea. Though the boats number 20 active vessels at most, the fishing technique is known to trap tons of fish and sea mammals such as dolphins.

INTERNATIONAL

A comprehensive article looks at dolphin intelligence from the physiological to their social adaptations that have allowed dolphins to master their environment.

After studying long-finned pilot whales, researchers have detected dialect differences similar to the way humans from a specific location have their own vocabulary, grammar, and pronunciation.
And they are honing on identifying which dialect comes from which region.

Scientists have created highly detailed maps charting the seasonal movements and population densities of 35 species of whales, dolphins and porpoises — many of them threatened or endangered — in the crowded waters of the U.S. East Coast and Gulf of Mexico. – See more at: https://nicholas.duke.edu/about/news/new-maps-may-help-reduce-threats-whales-dolphins-us-waters#sthash.r8kSDtTa.dpuf

VIDEO – They were spotted by wildlife expert Ross Wheeler in Falmouth Bay, Cornwall.
He was leading a tour for Exeter University students who were monitoring the so-called harbour porpoise. But instead they found a much greater scene – 190 common dolphins rounding up a massive school of herring.

Scientists have gathered DNA samples from a unique hybrid dolphin that washed ashore in Western Australia’s north.

While hybrid dolphins have been seen occasionally, it is believed to be the first time in the world one has been studied.

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