( Read more... )

Wired's Sarah Zhang notes why the Japanese continue to hunt whales, in the face of international criticism and their own disinterest in actually eating the meat.

When Japan this week resumed hunting minke whales in defiance of an international moratorium, the country found itself now on the other side of the Americans-and Australians, and New ( Read more... )

The National Post carries this Associated Press article. Now, to enforce it!

An Australian court fined a Japanese whaling company 1 million Australian dollars ($700,000) on Wednesday for violating a court order that it stop hunting whales in an area off Antarctica ( Read more... )

This is huge. From National Geographic's Jane J./ Lee, news that sperm whales have a culture.

New ways to grab dinner, the trick to using a tool, and learning the local dialect. These are behaviors that animals pick up from each other. Killer whales, chimpanzees, and birds seem to have a cultural component to their lives. Now a new study suggests ( Read more... )

Science Sushi's Christie Wilcox reposted a 2013 article on the continuing popularity of the idea of giving birth admist dolphins. This might be a good idea if the dolphins were actively consenting to this activity. One wonders what the hell they think is going on.

Let’s talk about dolphins for a moment. I get it - they’re stunning creatures. These ( Read more... )

This NPR report is distressing. It does not make me feel guilty for visiting Niagara Fall's Marineland, with its captive cetaceans, but it does make me feel concerned for their fate.

Last year 4 million people visited SeaWorld's theme parks, where the top shows feature orcas, also known as killer whales. For years, activists have charged that ( Read more... )

National Geographic's Hereward Holland describes how an age-old history of cooperation between dolphins and Burmese fishers is being undermined by new destructive fishing techniques.

On a pale blue dawn on the Irrawaddy River in Myanmar (Burma), Maung Lay crouched at the front of his canoe, rapping the gunwale with a short stick. He then made a ( Read more... )

• blogTO notes the erection of a new LCBO in a former funeral home on Queen Street West.
• The Dragon's Tales links to a study of Titan's magnetic field.
• Joe. My. God. notes a group of American pastors who are responding to civil same-sex marriage by refusing to enact civil marriages themselves.
• Lawyers, Guns and Money notes the complicity of Firestone in ( Read more... )

Huh. From Science Daily:

Killer whales have complex vocal repertoires made up of clicks, whistles and pulsed calls -- repeated brief bursts of sound punctuated with silence. The acoustic features of these vocalizations, such as their duration, pitch and pulse pattern, vary across social groups. Whales that are closely related or live together ( Read more... )

• Al Jazeera notes the effects of population aging worldwide, observes the quarantining of four individuals possibly exposed to Ebola, comments on the huge costs associated with reconstruction in eastern Ukraine, and reports on a conference held by the Vatican on the plight of Middle Eastern Christians.
• Bloomberg notes the recovery of house prices in ( Read more... )