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© Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute, taken under NOAA permit #26919. Funded by United States Army Corps of Engineers

Birth announcement! First right whale calf of the 2024 calving season spotted

November 29, 2023 - On November 28th, researchers from the Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute...
© Peter Flood

Two New England-based nonprofits awarded nearly $400k federal grant

© Peter Flood November 20, 2023 - Contact: Jake O'Neill, Conservation Law Foundation, (617) 850-1709,...
Right whale - Regina WDC

North Atlantic right whale population has stabilized

WDC attends Ropeless Consortium and North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium WDC was in Canada this...
Moana, Marineland France

Orca Moana dies suddenly at Marineland

Twelve-year old orca, Moana has died suddenly at the Marineland Antibes theme park facility in...

Scientists find answers to whale mysteries in err…earwax!

We still know relatively little about whales and dolphins, which is one good reason why we should be protecting them, but finding out more about their secret lives sometimes comes from the strangest source.

Old samples of earwax from whales held for decades at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History are now revealing huge amounts of interesting data about the watery world in which these creatures lived hundreds of years ago.

The samples, which have been gathering dust, are now being compared with those taken from dead whales that wash up on the shore to reveal a fascinating story about the state of the oceans back then compared with the present day. 

The old wax deposits, or earplugs, not only captured a history of the contaminants the whales had encountered throughout their lives, but also provide scientists with a log of hormonal changes and chemicals related to stress that could explain major life events like puberty, pregnancy and birth. The data could then help to determine age, gestation periods and birth-rates. 

Amazingly, in terms of accuracy, the wax earplugs provide the data to within six months and allow researchers compare and measure not only one whale’s exposure to pollutants throughout the creature’s lifetime, but also other whales in other oceans and other decades for comparative study. In turn, this gives us an insight into the oceans they swam in too.