Watching whales far more profitable than killing them

September 23rd, 2009 LONDON - A new research by scientists has determined that blue whales have had to increase their 'singing' to cope with noise pollution from ships. Man-made noise such as ships' engines has caused hearing loss in whales.

September 16th, 2009 Police in Yale killing stake out hotel roomCROMWELL, Conn. — Police say they're watching a hotel room in Connecticut where a "person of interest" in the killing of a Yale University graduate student has been staying.

September 11th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new research has determined that killer whales have to raise their voices to be heard over ship noise, and the effort may be wearing the whales out as they try to find food amid dwindling numbers of salmon. According to a report in National Geographic News, scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) carried out the research.

September 2nd, 2009 SYDNEY - Secret Soviet whaling between 1947 and 1973 wiped out some humpback whale population in the Pacific, according to a new study. Wally Franklin, doctoral student at the Sydney based Southern Cross University's Whale Research Centre and co-director of The Oceania Project, co-authored the paper.

August 3rd, 2009 LONDON - Hydrophones have revealed that bowhead whales can sing in different voices to attract a mate and thereby ensure the species' survival. This is probably because global warming has opened up the Northwest Passage in 125,000 years, enabling the 100 tonne bowhead whales of the northern Pacific to reach Disko Bay in Greenland to mate with other whales.

June 29th, 2009 WASHINGTON - A new study has explained how marine mammals like seals and whales evolved to dive in the sea, and cope with the needs of a life in the aquatic environment. An aquatic lifestyle imposes serious demands for the organism, and this is true even for the tiniest molecules that form our body.

June 24th, 2009 WASHINGTON - In a new study, scientists have warned that a new form of unregulated whaling, called 'bycatch', is becoming a growing threat to whales along the coastlines of Japan and South Korea. According to Scott Baker, associate director of the Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University, DNA analysis of whale-meat products sold in Japanese markets suggests that the number of whales actually killed through this "bycatch whaling" may be equal to that killed through Japan's scientific whaling program - about 150 annually from each source.

June 22nd, 2009 Whaling talks said stuck on compromise dealLISBON, Portugal — The International Whaling Commission on Monday began discussing a possible compromise deal that would reduce the number of whales killed each year. However, environmental groups expressed little hope of a breakthrough in the two-decade dispute at the start of IWC's weeklong annual meeting in Portugal's Madeira islands.

June 18th, 2009 Australia, NZ to study Antarctic whalesWELLINGTON, New Zealand — Australia and New Zealand announced Thursday a non-lethal whale research expedition to the Antarctic, a direct challenge to Japan's research program that kills up to 1,000 whales a year. The six-week expedition, to set sail in a New Zealand ship early next year, will prove that whales can be studied without killing them, the two governments said in a joint statement.

June 15th, 2009 LONDON - Biologists studying sperm whales in the North Atlantic have found that mothers use organised babysitting sessions so they can go hunting for food. Scientists at the University of St Andrews, Durham University and Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, have discovered that females share responsibility for the younger members of a pod by establishing networks of carers.he whales are specially adapted to allow them to make long, deep dives.

June 1st, 2009 LONDON - In a new research, scientists have discovered that there are babysitters in whale populations as well, which look after the young ones of mother whales while they go hunt for food. According to a report in New Scientist, Shane Gero of Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, and colleagues tracked two populations of sperm whales in the Caribbean and Sargasso seas to see what happened when mother whales dived for food.

May 30th, 2009 WASHINGTON - Acoustic experts confirmed tracking a singing blue whale 112 km off the Long Island and New York City early this year, even as the second one was heard singing in the far distance. These endangered blue whales are the largest animals ever to have lived on this planet, and their voices can travel across an ocean.

May 23rd, 2009 WASHINGTON - Sperm whales have been caught on camera stealing cod off fishing gear. The unique video shot on CCTV cameras shows sperm whales' ability to steal black cod off longlines of deep-sea fishing gear that features a main fishing line draped across the ocean and fastened with shorter lines bearing baited hooks.

April 28th, 2009 LONDON - Hollywood couple Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes unwind themselves by watching back-to-back movies. The couple, who have a three-year-old daughter Suri, love watching several films in a row after a busy day at work, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

April 13th, 2009 LONDON - One in ten British families get a chance to spend time together only when they are watching television, according to a new survey. In the survey conducted by Raisingkids website, along with Freesat, the subscription-free digital television service, half of the respondents thought that time spent watching TV was the best way to catch up with one another.