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Double Your Impact for Marine Animal Rescue & Response

On a chilly day this past December, the WDC North America team celebrated the first...
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WDC’s Education Wishlist = Cleared!

To the WDC Community, I want to thank you so much for your support of...
Hysazu Photography

Looking forward for Southern Resident orcas in 2023

Hysazu Photography 2022 was a big year for Southern Resident orcas - 2022 brought the...
Credit: Seacoast Science Center

The Unlikely Adventure of Shoebert, a Young Grey Seal Who Visited an Industrial Park Pond

Credit: Seacoast Science Center In mid-September, our stranding partners in northern Massachusetts were inundated with...
Leaping harbour porpoise

The power of harbour porpoise poo

We know we need to save the whale to save the world. Now we are...
Right whale - Regina WDC

Whale and Dolphin Conservation: Change Through Policy.

WDC focuses on education, research, conservation projects, and policy work to create a sustainable future...
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Clear WDC’s Amazon Wishlist for Giving Tuesday

UPDATE: We are thrilled to report that everything was donated off of our Amazon Wishlist...
Fin whales are targeted by Icelandic whalers

Speaking truth to power – my week giving whales a voice

The International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting is where governments come together to make decisions about whaling...

Well, “eel” be damned …

Finding out more about the behaviour of whales, dolphins and porpoises can be a tricky business but researchers in Denmark have inadvertently discovered a new technique and all by accident.

Scientists studying the oceanic migration behaviour of eels implanted tags that would record both temperature and depth into adult eels released on the Atlantic coasts of France and Ireland. Quite unexpectedly, for three of the tags there was a dramatic rise in temperature from 10°C to 36°C and the depth data recorded showed frequent dives to depths of around 800m, indicating that the tagged eels had been eaten by something with a penchant for eel.

Two of the tags had sufficient data to provide even more information. Between them, they recorded a total of 91 dives to maximum depths of 250-860m lasting 11-12 minutes and with surface intervals of 5-7 minutes. In addition, more than two thirds of the dives included a rapid descent from approximately 500m to 600-700m.

This additional information allowed the scientists to conclude that the eel-eating predator was most likely a deep-diving toothed whale – perhaps a sperm whale or a Cuvier’s beaked whale to name but a few.