#Balaenoptera physalus

[haveyouseenthisanimal-irl]

[lightningspam-photography]

Fin Whale (balaenoptera physalus)

taken off the coast of California

status: endangered

These stealthy whales barely show any of their enormous body at the surface despite being the second largest whale behind only the Blue whale. When full grown they range from 70 to to 85 feet in length and can live up to 80 - 90 years (per NOAA)!

[tenth-sentence]

Intersexuality or transgender has also been reported among Fin Whales (Balaenoptera physalus): one individual, for example, had both male and female reproductive organs, including a uterus, vagina, elongated clitoris, and testes.

"Biological Exuberance: Animal Homosexuality and Natural Diversity" - Bruce Bagemihl

[inatungulates]

Southern fin whale Balaenoptera physalus quoyi

Observed by felipe_araya, CC BY-NC

[relatablemarine]

Ever made one of those charming little tin can phones? Turns out there is a marine equivalent, sort of. A SOFAR (Sound Fixing and Ranging) channel occurs due to the stratification of the ocean, the most dense water which is cold and saline sinks and warmer, fresher water stays at the surface. This drives the entirety of the global ocean conveyor belt, a massive scale system of currents upwelling, downwelling and moving with the gradients. The intermediate layer has been used by naval ships to send and receive audio information since the second world war as the sound can travel thousands of miles in the empty ocean due to the fact that the sound waves bounce off the boundaries of the neighboring layers without dispersing, like when a human cups their hands over their mouth to call out. Scientists have made record of strange low-frequency noises traveling through the channel, these are theorised to be caused by fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus) diving down to make use of these natural telephones to communicate with other whales from vast distances.

[projetomundoanimalc]

Animais em extinção

Onça-pintada (Panthera onca) ...

Lobo-guará (Chrysocyon brachyurus) ...

Panda-gigante (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) ...

Baleia-fin (Balaenoptera physalus) ...

Arara-azul-de-lear (Anodorhynchus leari) ...

Pinguim-africano (Spheniscus demersus) ...

Peixe-boi-marinho (Trichecus manatus L.)

Esses são alguns animais em extinção que devemos preservá-los para que ainda existam

#Não caçar

[isoleminori]

Ponza, autore ignoto, 1957 Nella tarda primavera del 1957 una Balenottera comune [Balaenoptera physalus (Linnaeus, 1758)] si arenò nei pressi della spiaggia di Frontone. L'esemplare, un maschio, fu analizzato dallo studioso Pietro Parenzan e un occhio divenne parte del Catalogo dei reperti cetologici dell'’Istituto Sperimentale Talassografico “Attilio Cerruti" di Taranto. Lo spiaggiamento del cetaceo catturò molto l'attenzione della popolazione dell'isola. #ponza #ponzaisland #balenottero #cetaceo #isoleminori #isoleitaliane #mare #isole #island #sea #isola #tirreno #mediterraneo #photography #vintagephoto #vintagephotography #oldphoto #foundphoto #lostmemories #antiquephoto #oldphotos #oldphotograph #isoleminorifoto #ponzagram #isoladiponza #pontinesia #pontine #isoleponziane https://www.instagram.com/p/CpZ59RlsQN1/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[kirkgarden]

Whales, the majestic giants of the ocean, encompass various species, each unique in its characteristics and distribution. Here's an overview of some prominent whale species, their vocalizations, and global habitats:

1. Blue Whale (Balaenoptera musculus):

- Known as the largest animal on Earth, blue whales inhabit oceans worldwide, preferring deep, open waters. Their vocalizations include low-frequency moans, pulses, and groans, which can travel vast distances underwater, aiding in communication and navigation.

2. Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae):

- Recognized for their acrobatic breaches and haunting songs, humpback whales frequent both polar and tropical waters during migration seasons. Their songs, characterized by complex sequences of moans, cries, and chirps, are believed to play a role in mating rituals and social bonding.

3. Sperm Whale (Physeter macrocephalus):

- Sperm whales, renowned for their deep-sea dives, are found in all major oceans, with a preference for deeper waters. Their clicks, used for echolocation and communication, are among the loudest sounds produced by any animal, enabling them to navigate and locate prey in the dark depths.

4. Orca or Killer Whale (Orcinus orca):

- As apex predators, orcas inhabit diverse marine environments, from polar regions to tropical seas. Their vocal repertoire includes clicks, whistles, and calls, utilized for communication within pods during hunting and social activities.

5. Beluga Whale (Delphinapterus leucas):

- Belugas, often referred to as "sea canaries" due to their high-pitched vocalizations, reside primarily in Arctic and sub-Arctic waters. Their sounds consist of whistles, chirps, and clicks, facilitating social interactions and navigation in icy habitats.

6. Gray Whale (Eschrichtius robustus):

- Gray whales undertake one of the longest migrations of any mammal, traveling between feeding grounds in the Arctic and breeding grounds in the warmer waters of the Pacific. Their vocalizations are less studied but include low-frequency rumbles and grunts.

7. Fin Whale (Balaenoptera physalus):

- Fin whales are distributed across all major oceans, favoring deep offshore waters. Their vocalizations consist of rhythmic, low-frequency pulses and moans, often referred to as "songs," which likely serve communicative purposes during migration and social interactions.

8. Minke Whale (Balaenoptera acutorostrata):**

- Minke whales are found in both polar and temperate waters worldwide, often near the coastlines. Their vocalizations are relatively simple compared to other species, consisting mainly of pulsed calls and short bursts, possibly used for navigation and communication.

These descriptions offer a glimpse into the rich diversity of whale species and their vocal behaviors across different marine habitats. From the haunting melodies of humpbacks to the powerful clicks of sperm whales, each species contributes to the intricate tapestry of oceanic life, highlighting the importance of conservation efforts to protect these magnificent creatures and their habitats.

https://youtu.be/gbWQSONI3Fg?si=Y_zhdECcu_HbMQ1y

[lightningspam-photography]

Fin Whale (Balaenoptera physalus)

taken off the coast of Rancho Palos Verdes, California

status: endangered (source: NOAA fisheries)

These whales are nicknamed the greyhounds of the sea for their speed! They can reach 29 miles per hour in short bursts but cruise at speeds not too much lower than that. Quite impressive when you consider they're also the second largest whale able to reach lengths around 80 feet!

[avo-kat]

‘No future’: Iceland cancels whale hunt over animal welfare concerns

by Elizabeth Claire Alberts on 21 June 2023

Citing animal welfare concerns, Iceland has suspended its whale hunting season until Aug. 31.

This decision follows the release of a government-commissioned independent report that found that many whales suffer immensely after being harpooned.

Iceland had been set to kill around 200 fin whales, up from the 148 it killed in 2022.

Iceland has suspended its planned hunt for fin whales this year, citing animal welfare concerns.

On June 20, Svandís Svavarsdóttir, the country’s minister of food, agriculture and fisheries, announced that the whale hunt was postponed because “the fishing method used when hunting large whales does not comply with the law on animal welfare.”

This decision follows the release of a government-commissioned independent report that found that 41% of whales targeted in the Icelandic hunts did not die immediately, but suffered immensely after being shot with harpoons. It also found that some whales took up to two hours to die.

The hunt has been suspended until Aug. 31, but experts close to the matter say it’s unlikely it will start after the suspension lifts, since September usually marks the end of the whaling season.

“I have made the decision to temporarily stop whaling in light of the unequivocal opinion of the professional council on animal welfare,” Svavarsdóttir said in a statement in Icelandic. “The conditions of the law on animal welfare are inescapable in my mind, if the government and license holders cannot guarantee welfare requirements, this activity does not see a future.”

Only one whaling company, Hvalur, holds a license to hunt whales in Iceland, which is set to expire in 2023. Another Icelandic whaling company, IP-Utgerd, ceased operations in 2020 due to financial difficulties.

Arne Feuerhahn, founder of Hard to Port, a German organization that has worked to end the Icelandic whale hunts, says the news surprised him.

“I was standing in front of one of the whaling ships … when I received the news,” Feuerhahn, currently in Iceland, told Mongabay by phone. “It was a very, very special and emotional moment because so many people have put a lot of energy over the past few months and years to get to this outcome.”

Before receiving the news, Feuerhahn said he’d been expecting the whalers to begin hunting on June 21.

Feuerhahn, who has been working with partners to document the Icelandic whale hunts since 2015, says he previously shared video of the whale hunts with Svavarsdóttir. The government then placed observers on all whaling ships in 2022.

This year, Iceland was set to kill around 200 fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus), considered vulnerable to extinction by the global conservation authority IUCN.

In 2022, Iceland killed 148 fin whales. In 2018, it killed 44 fin whales and two rare hybrids of fin and blue whales.

Iceland has been one of the very few countries, along with Japan and Norway, that has continued to hunt whales despite the International Whaling Commission enacting a global moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986.

A survey conducted by Icelandic research company Maskína found that 51% of Icelanders oppose the whale hunts, while only 29% are in favor. Most of those in favor were 60 years or older.

“This is a major milestone in compassionate whale conservation,” Ruud Tombrock, the executive director of the Humane Society International in Europe, said in a statement.

“There is no humane way to kill a whale at sea, and so we urge the minister to make this a permanent ban,” Tombrock added. “Whales already face so many serious threats in the oceans from pollution, climate change, entanglement in fish nets and ship strikes, that ending cruel commercial whaling is the only ethical conclusion.”

[todosobreballenas]

¿Sabes por dónde y cómo respiran las ballenas?

No caben dudas de que las ballenas son uno de los animales mamíferos más fascinantes que podemos encontrar en mares y océanos de todo el planeta. Esta asombrosa familia acuática pertenece al grupo de los cetáceos que engloba alrededor de 86 especies.

Entre ellas, se encuentran la Balaenoptera physalus, más conocida como la ballena azul, que es el animal más grande que habita en nuestro planeta. De igual manera sucede con la ballena Megaptera novaeangliae, más conocida como la ballena jorobada y la Eubalaena australis, que es la ballena franca austral.

Todas ellas son increíbles por sus asombrosos y admirables saltos en la superficie del mar. Cabe aclarar que uno de los principales motivos por el que salen a la superficie y dan esos saltos es precisamente, para poder respirar.

¿Por dónde respiran las ballenas?

Todas las ballenas respiran a través de sus orificios nasales. Estos tienen el nombre de espiráculos. Son orificios con terminaciones nerviosas que les permiten reconocer si están fuera del agua. Se encuentran en la parte superior de su cabeza. Esa ubicación les permite respirar prácticamente sin hacer nada de esfuerzo.

De esa manera, pueden permanecer durante bastante tiempo descansando en la superficie y captar el oxigeno que necesitan para vivir. Estos espiráculos están recubiertos por una membrana que actúa como si fuera una válvula. Mientras está en una posición relajada puede mantener el músculo del orificio sellado y así impide que entre agua.

Por otro lado, vale aclarar que esos orificios nasales están conectados con la boca. Por lo tanto, este animal es capaz de respirar por la boca. Así es que las ballenas tienen asegurado su proceso de alimentación independientemente de la respiración. Eso significa que no les entra agua en los pulmones mientras están comiendo.

¿Cómo respiran las ballenas?

Existe un proceso de respiración que todas las ballenas realizan para vivir:

1.    Aunque las ballenas viven en ambientes acuáticos, necesitan del oxigeno del aire para respira. Es igual que todos los animales terrestres. En cada toma de aire que realizan, son capaces de adquirir hasta un 85% de su capacidad pulmonar.

2.    Una vez que el aire entra en sus fosas nasales por medio del espiráculo que tienen en la cabeza, este va directo a la tráquea.

3.    Luego de allí el aire va a los pulmones, donde el oxígeno que tomó de la atmosfera inicia el circuito de respiración.

4.    Ese oxigeno lo llevan desde los pulmones a través de la sangre y se convierte en dióxido de carbono.

5.    Finalmente, ese dióxido de carbono lo expulsan junto con nitrógeno por el mismo espiráculo y así cierra el circuito de respiración.

Es clave el último paso del proceso respiratorio. Se llama exhalación y es el momento en que las ballenas expulsan todo el dióxido de carbono. Ese momento se visualiza en la superficie cuando los espiráculos emergen en forma de columnas de agua y aire.

En este proceso de respiración, las ballenas tienen varias estrategias para que resulte más fácil como también para ahorrar oxigeno y aguantar más tiempo debajo del agua.

Estrategias que implementan para su respiración

·         Bradicardia en las ballenas

La bradicardia es un proceso en el cual las ballenas disminuyen su ritmo cardíaco. De esta manera pueden permanecer sumergidas en el agua antes de su próxima inhalación. Además, tienen una elevada tolerancia al dióxido de carbono. Por ello, pueden mantenerlo en su organismo por períodos más prolongados que los seres humanos.

·         Más oxígeno para sus órganos vitales

Es otra de las estrategias que utilizan las ballenas para optimizar su respiración. Envían más oxigeno a través de la sangre solo a esos órganos que lo necesitan. Es el caso del cerebro, el corazón y los músculos que necesitan para nadar. De esta manera conservan el oxígeno durante más tiempo.

Así respiran las ballenas cuando duermen

Esencialmente, las ballenas no son capaces de dormir profundamente. Por ello, se puede decir que su respiración es siempre consciente. Tanto sus pulmones como otros órganos implicados en la respiración están controlados por el sistema nervioso.

Este siempre se mantiene alerta para poder distinguir cualquier situación de peligro, ya sean depredadores o por el simple hecho de salir a la superficie para respirar, inhalar oxígeno y exhalar dióxido de carbono.

Originally published at http://todosobreballenas.com/ on April 10, 2023.

[inatungulates]

North Pacific fin whale Balaenoptera physalus velifera

Observed by smbeven, CC BY-NC

[hyenaswine]

OKAY since for some reason people randomly got invested in this post, i will finish the whole story here.

so the background is that last week, for the very first time in my life, i tested positive for covid. i managed to power thru the actual symptomatic part in about 4 days, but i am still testing positive, so i'm still isolating until that's over with. i'm just like really bored being stuck in my home & it's starting to make me angry & unpleasant. RIGHT before i learned i had covid, i read a story about this fin whale (Balaenoptera physalus, second largest whale species on earth nbd) that had recently washed up on the oregon coast that scientists had come & poked some holes into so it wouldn't explode from trapped gases; but the plan was to just leave it to decompose naturally on the beach. i figured, as long as i just stayed in my car (or outside in the open) & didn't go inside anywhere or get close to anybody, this could be a safe solo trip for me. also it's been raining all winter but today was finally a nice sunny day, good for a scenic drive.

so blah blah blah i drive a little over 2 hours & get to the beach where this whale's supposed to be, which was lovely but noticeably whale-free. i sit down on a log & do some googling-

turns out this whale has done the one thing i would not expect a dead animal to do, which is move. notoriously, dead things don't do that. but this dead whale is now 3 miles north of where i am. now this is a beach you can drive on, for some reason? but i drive a 2009 honda fit, it does not have 4-wheel drive, so driving on the beach isn't really an option for me.

as i'm walking away from the beach back to my vehicle to try to plot another course, this guy with his kiddo in the car pulls over, rolls down his window, & goes, "you know what i'm here for." i guess i look like a freak who's out here hunting for dead cetaceans. i relay what i've read about the carcass being 3 miles north of this spot, but HE says he talked to someone further south in seaside who says it's THAT way (& i mean yeah, if seaside is using this as an opportunity to attract tourists, they WOULD want you to stay in seaside), so idk. my plan is to just find beach access closest to 3 miles north of here, which turns out to be delaura beach.

well delaura turns out to be another parking area where you either drive a short ways onto the beach, or take one of the hiking trails parallel to the beach. again, i don't want to drive onto the beach, but surely i can just walk alongside the road-

well, it turns out no, i really can't, because of these huge puddles. i did not come equipped for hiking or mud or getting sloppy. i return back to the signs.

it looks like i'm right next to a trail that shortly connects to a smaller trail that will take me beachwards (delaura dune trail was listed at 1.9 miles). now i would say i've never truly been hiking in pretty much my whole life. i'm a city person & an indoor kid. but i've got my tennis shoes on, & these trails look pretty flat & well-marked, so i figure i'll at least TRY to get to that smaller trail that goes near the beach. there IS another sign that catches my eye first.

i start down this trail & i am immediately regretful. i'm totally alone, i have no reception, nobody knows where i am, i have sneakers & a light jacket & some water but am largely unprepared for hiking, i don't know what wildlife is in the area except for at least one Aggressive Coyote, & most importantly, i am a person who obsessively reads books & listens to podcasts SPECIFICALLY about hikers who get lost & die horribly. you would THINK that this would make me MORE equipped than the average person to encounter a deadly animal or hiking emergency, but i have learned NOTHING from this content other than that it's a good excuse to continue to stay inside. as i walked thru these lonely woods (which were really beautiful btw), in my head i was narrating the episode of Tooth & Claw (animal attack podcast) where they would recount my grisly death in the jaws of an Aggressive Coyote because i'd wandered into the forest looking for a whale, even though that is distinctly outside of normal whale habitat.

but gosh it sure was pretty! i think i walked at least two-thirds of a mile into this lush woodland before i felt like i'd gone far enough that the smaller trail should've popped up, & i got too spooked & turned around. also some ravens started making fun of me & i didn't appreciate that.

so sunset beach was 3 miles south of my whale, & delaura beach was about a mile north, but i couldn't even get to delaura beach. the only beaches in between were on the military reserve so i couldn't access them. the sun was going down & i needed to start home. i decided to go back to sunset beach to see if i could get to a high point where maybe i could spot the whale from a distance.

sure, what's another third of a mile when you've just walked a mile & a third? also you're fat & you don't walk ever & you have covid? holy shit i've already put 10 photos in this longass post, let me make another one

im gonna go on that dead whale road trip tomorrow & no one can stop me

[namu-the-orca]

A Myriad of Mysticetes

Here they are, the very last of 2021’s commissioned illustrations (spare some that can’t be released yet pending publication, a couple of duplicates and one single Melon-headed whale I somehow didn’t manage to fit in anywhere) - and the last of the bad alliteration titles. The grand bearded whales, the Mysticetes, or, more specifically, the Balaenoptera genus. (The minkes also belong to this genus, but they already got their own poster thingy.)

When seen as a fleeting back at sea, they might appear like rather boring grey blobs compared to their more interestingly marked dolphin cousins. And older illustrations would agree. I think it has a lot to do with their size (hard to get a proper overview of a 20 m animal) as well as the delicacy of their markings, requiring really good conditions to show up in photos. However, as technology and opportunities developed and more and more footage of these animals emerges, a different picture emerges too: that of a complex, and intricately marked animal just as beautiful as any dolphin.

Having them all in a row it is interesting to compare markings. Chevrons (the V-shaped markings over the pectoral fin, meeting on the back) are a fan favourite, as well as the a white ear lines, “flipper shadows” (dark markings originating from the armpit), and a lighter grey lateral field covering much of their side. Only the Blue whale seems to miss out, though they’ve got a light chevron over the eye and lots of spots to make up for it. I thought it interesting to add my (older) Omura’s whale illustrations too, because at first glance they’re very similar to Fin whales, but upon closer inspection one can find many differences. 

I hope you will enjoy these last of the illustrations, and join me in marvelling at the hidden beauty of big Balaenopterids.

[magicalgirloftheday]

✧・ﾟ:*Today’s magical girl of the afternoon is: Balaenoptera Physalus from Noah Fantasy!✧・ﾟ:*