http://phys.org/ en-us Phys.org internet news portal provides the latest news on science including: Physics, Nanotechnology, Life Sciences, Space Science, Earth Science, Environment, Health and Medicine. When they dive together, sperm whales make patterns of clicks to each other known as "codas". Recent findings suggest that, not only do different codas mean different things, but that whales can also tell which member of their community is speaking based on the sound properties of the codas. Just as we can tell our friends apart by the sounds of their voices and the way they pronounce their words, different sperm whales make the same pattern of clicks, but with different accents. http://phys.org/news224417797.html Biology Thu, 12 May 2011 11:17:02 EST news224417797 (AP) -- Activists vowing to stop the killing of whales exchanged water-cannon fire with a Japanese whaling fleet they are tailing in the Antarctic Ocean, as sea confrontations that have led to collisions and a sunken vessel continue. http://phys.org/news184921440.html Space & Earth Tue, 09 Feb 2010 07:30:01 EST news184921440 (AP) -- Anti-whaling ship the Bob Barker and a Japanese harpoon boat collided in icy Antarctic waters in the second major clash this year in increasingly aggressive confrontations between conservationists and the whaling fleet. http://phys.org/news184748586.html Space & Earth Sun, 07 Feb 2010 08:40:02 EST news184748586 Taiwan plans to use DNA from whales and dolphins as evidence to convict poachers and protect the endangered marine animals, an official said Monday. http://phys.org/news184224910.html Biology Mon, 01 Feb 2010 05:35:33 EST news184224910 (AP) -- Rescuers in New Zealand managed to coax 33 beached whales back out into deep waters Sunday, but another 15 of the pod died, a conservation official said. http://phys.org/news183522742.html Biology Sun, 24 Jan 2010 03:30:01 EST news183522742 Genetic analyses refute the hypothesis that an overly abundant population of minke whales is creating too much competition over food for populations of other whale species to rebound, according to a new study supported by the Lenfest Ocean Program and published this week in the journal Molecular Ecology. The study's findings indicate that the Southern Ocean minke whale population around Antarctica has not grown unnaturally large in the wake of industrial whaling, which decimated populations of other larger whales in the region. http://phys.org/news182700183.html Biology Thu, 14 Jan 2010 14:20:01 EST news182700183 (PhysOrg.com) -- An international legal expert says Australia has some very difficult decisions about how best to approach the increasingly tense situation arising from Japanese whaling in the Southern Ocean. http://phys.org/news182442218.html Other Sciences Mon, 11 Jan 2010 14:50:01 EST news182442218 (PhysOrg.com) -- Over the past decade, researchers have developed a variety of reliable real-time and archival instruments to study sounds made or heard by marine mammals and fish. These new sensors are now being used in research, management and conservation projects around the world with some very important practical results. Among them is improved monitoring of endangered North Atlantic right whales in an effort to reduce ship strikes, a leading cause of their deaths. http://phys.org/news181311266.html Biology Tue, 29 Dec 2009 12:15:49 EST news181311266 More than 20 pilot whales died in a mass beaching in New Zealand Sunday while another 40 were successfully herded back to sea, conservation officials said. http://phys.org/news181153124.html Biology Sun, 27 Dec 2009 16:19:36 EST news181153124 Scientists in Scotland, Canada and the US have proposed a new method to identify priority areas for whale conservation. The team's findings, published in Animal Conservation, suggest that even small protected areas, identified through feeding behaviour, can benefit highly mobile marine predators such as killer whales. http://phys.org/news180214605.html Biology Wed, 16 Dec 2009 20:20:06 EST news180214605 Climate change threatens the survival of dozens of animal species from the emperor penguin to Australian koalas, according to a report released Monday at the UN climate summit. http://phys.org/news179995856.html Biology Mon, 14 Dec 2009 07:20:01 EST news179995856 (AP) -- Marine sanctuary officials planned to return to Hawaii waters with modified equipment Friday to try to cut loose a young humpback whale entangled in several hundred yards of heavy plastic rope. http://phys.org/news179118026.html Biology Fri, 04 Dec 2009 03:40:01 EST news179118026 While most of us would never willingly consume a highly endangered species, doing so might be as easy as plucking sushi from a bento box. New genetic detective work from the Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics at the American Museum of Natural History shows that bluefin tuna is routinely plated in sushi bars sampled in New York and Colorado. A quarter of what was labeled as tuna on sushi menus was bluefin, and some was even escolar, a waxy, buttery fish often labeled "white tuna" that is banned for sale in Japan and Italy because it can cause gastrointestinal distress. The new research is published in PLoS ONE. http://phys.org/news177858752.html Biology Thu, 19 Nov 2009 13:18:04 EST news177858752 (PhysOrg.com) -- A new study may have solved the long-standing question of how elephants sleep during their long migrations at sea, when they can be away from land for up to eight months. http://phys.org/news177315628.html Biology Fri, 13 Nov 2009 06:22:02 EST news177315628 What do a West African drummer and a sperm whale have in common? According to some reports, they can both spot rhythms in the chatter of an ocean crowded with the calls of marine mammals -- a feat impossible for the untrained human ear. http://phys.org/news175786877.html Biology Mon, 26 Oct 2009 15:10:01 EST news175786877 After 15 years of research in the waters of the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans, scientists from the Wildlife Conservation Society, the American Museum of Natural History, and an international coalition of organizations have unveiled the largest genetic study of humpback whale populations ever conducted in the Southern Hemisphere. http://phys.org/news174718568.html Biology Wed, 14 Oct 2009 06:10:01 EST news174718568 (PhysOrg.com) -- Scientists have been studying how krill form into superswarms, which are among the largest gatherings of living creatures on Earth. http://phys.org/news174636686.html Biology Tue, 13 Oct 2009 09:50:05 EST news174636686 (AP) -- Four years after being placed on the Endangered Species List, the dwindling sea otters of southwest Alaska on Wednesday were given an important recovery tool. http://phys.org/news174198176.html Biology Thu, 08 Oct 2009 06:30:01 EST news174198176 (AP) -- A government study found that a group of endangered beluga whales in Alaska is declining, raising concern that bolstered protection for the animals is not coming quickly enough. http://phys.org/news174110166.html Biology Wed, 07 Oct 2009 05:10:01 EST news174110166 Seismic surveys used for oil and gas prospecting on the sea floor are a disturbance for blue whales, the world's biggest animal and one of its rarest species, biologists reported on Wednesday. http://phys.org/news172909374.html Biology Wed, 23 Sep 2009 07:50:04 EST news172909374 When a whale dies, it sinks to the seafloor and becomes food for an entire ecosystem. Researchers at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, have discovered previously unknown species that feed only on dead whales - and use DNA technology to show that the species diversity in our oceans may be higher than previously thought. http://phys.org/news172739527.html Biology Mon, 21 Sep 2009 08:30:01 EST news172739527 (AP) -- Caught between rising seas and land melting beneath their mukluk-shod feet, the villagers of Tuktoyaktuk are doing what anyone would do on this windy Arctic coastline. They're building windmills. http://phys.org/news171564944.html Space & Earth Mon, 07 Sep 2009 18:10:01 EST news171564944 (PhysOrg.com) -- Biologists at the University of California, Riverside report new evidence for evolutionary change recorded in both the fossil record and the genomes (or genetic blueprints) of living organisms, providing fresh support for Charles Darwin's theory of evolution. http://phys.org/news171272885.html Biology Fri, 04 Sep 2009 08:50:08 EST news171272885 Hundreds of onlookers cheered Monday afternoon when a beached mother whale was reunited with her calf on a southern Florida beach, the mother frantically thrashing about and splashing water into the air. http://phys.org/news169188838.html Biology Tue, 11 Aug 2009 06:40:02 EST news169188838 Australian scientists have photographed a humpback whale helping a newborn calf take what appears to be its first breath, a rare event described as the "Holy Grail" for whale-watchers. http://phys.org/news167553925.html Biology Thu, 23 Jul 2009 08:20:01 EST news167553925 A plan to restore salmon runs on California's Sacramento River also could help revive killer whale populations 700 miles to the north in Puget Sound, as federal scientists struggle to protect endangered species in a complex ecosystem that stretches along the Pacific coast from California to Alaska. http://phys.org/news166022139.html Biology Sun, 05 Jul 2009 14:16:25 EST news166022139 A new measurement system for the detection of whales is used for the first time on board of the research vessel Polarstern. Whales are usually difficult to spot. On the one hand, they spend the greater part of their life under water. On the other hand, only a small part of their body can be seen when they surface, and this can even hardly be distinguished from the surrounding water. http://phys.org/news165751020.html Technology Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:05:45 EST news165751020 Scientists are warning that a new form of unregulated whaling has emerged along the coastlines of Japan and South Korea, where the commercial sale of whales killed as fisheries "bycatch" is threatening coastal stocks of minke whales and other protected species. http://phys.org/news164976613.html Biology Tue, 23 Jun 2009 11:51:36 EST news164976613 The governments of Norway and Japan are using taxpayer money to subsidize their unprofitable whaling industries, according to a first-time analysis of the economics of whaling. http://phys.org/news164594941.html Biology Fri, 19 Jun 2009 01:49:11 EST news164594941 (AP) -- Authorities on Sunday began the grim task of removing the carcasses of 55 whales that beached themselves and had to be shot despite the frantic rescue efforts of hundreds of volunteers. http://phys.org/news162995886.html Biology Sun, 31 May 2009 13:39:05 EST news162995886