Stargazing Whales

Scientists have long been intrigued with the almost uncannily straight paths humpbacks follow while traveling their routes across the oceans. A team from the University of Canterbury and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in DC has now observed the huge mammals’ migration patterns, and believes: “They’re orienting with something outside of themselves, not something internal.“

After eight years of intensive field study, enviromental scientist Travis Horton of Canterbury, suspects that whales rely on the Earth’s magnetism, the sun’s position and the constellation of the moon and stars in order to stay on track.

Between 2003 and 2010, the scientists have mapped the cetaceans’ behavior by using satellites tags embedded in seven South Atlantic and nine South Pacific whales. They discovered that despite currents, storms and other distractions, the humpbacks never deviated more than approximately 5 degrees from their courses, and many deviated by only one degree or even less.

Whales are known to be highly sophisticated creatures, but the findings generated admiration even among the researchers. The results, recently published in Biology Letters, suggest an intrinsic correlation between the deep sea and the sky, and can be interpreted as more evidence for the holistic nature of our world.

Image: "Whale Tails" by FrankBonilla.tv on Flickr courtesy of Creative Commons Licensing

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Animal Experimentation Sucks

Submitted by muskox on Sat, 04/23/2011 - 11:22.

From the article: “You can’t stick a large whale in a box like you can with a bird to study its migratory behavior. This is why detailed field data on whales is so important,” said research biologist John Calambokidis of the Cascadia Research Collective, who wasn’t involved in the work.

I don't want knowledge or insights generated from people who think like this. How crazy is it that what is considered "observing migration patterns" consists of "embedded satellite tags in seven South Atlantic and nine South Pacific whales…Each tag contained a battery-operated transponder that beamed its location to the researchers. The tags lasted from four weeks to seven months before falling out".

Do we deserve to know these things about whales if this is how we go about it? Meanwhile, the military bombards them with sonic pollution and oceans are covered in plastic.

Just say NO to knowledge based on animal experimentation.

well said, muskox--

Submitted by Five on Sat, 04/23/2011 - 22:52.

Again , and unfortunately, this demonstrates just how insensitive humankind is to the feelings and rights of the animal kingdom.

To tag these beautiful creatures..(or any creature) with embedded (in their flesh?) battery-operated tags, takes away their joyous freedom, and their right to live their lives in peace.

This shows us the un-evolved state( of consciousness )of our science community.

Animals are not here for our experimental research, for our clothing, for our meals, or for our entertainment.

Only when humankind begins to respect the animals... will humankind begin to respect itself.

While I share your concern

Submitted by Julia Knobloch on Sun, 05/01/2011 - 10:54.

While I share your concern about not harming the animals, I myself find the results fascinating and also, important. The whales are in no way used for our clothing, our meals, our entertainment, but for exploring the intrinsic relation between those beautiful animals and the earth. I know there are several ways of judging this. Let alone the word 'used' may generate big concerns, and we have learned that when it comes to scientfic research, we better critical and sceptic. Scientfic research, and the neutralisation of its motivations, must be carefully watched. It is a very ambivalent, thin line, but I do believe that there has been research that helped broaden the understanding of animals and of our world. As there have been important studies about human behavior. I'm still researching about the distinctivemethods of satelitte tagging but what I have found so far is that the researchers in question use animal friendly tags. Greenpeace has also used similar tags in their monitoring studies. Now I realize this may not be enough of an argument, and should I find more, I'll post it.

I wonder if they are into Astrology?

Submitted by Five on Wed, 05/04/2011 - 11:13.

Yes, Julia, I must agree that the conclusions of the research are certainly interesting, but not really surprising. Alot of marine mammals migrate/travel via star systems...as do land animals, such as the great cats. We need to develop more gentle/benign methods of research, that are not cruel and invasive.