Friendship Matters

Humpback whales form friendships that last years.

Lost Whale

This story is kind of cool, but also very sad at the same time. A gray whale was spotted in the waters off Israel. The cool part of this is that there are no gray whales in the Atlantic. They were hunted to extinction in the 1700s. There are two groups of grey whales in the Pacific. The researchers think that the Northwest Passage was ice free for a time in the summer and the whale swam through and got hopelessly lost. The possibility of the whale making a safe return trip to the Pacific was considered "rather slim." Thus, the sad part of this is that there are no gray whales in the Atlantic. A lonely whale, all alone, half a world away from his kin, with no hope of returning. It reminds of me of this penguin and makes me want to cry.

Whale Snot

Apparently, you can't really collect whale blood without killing it first. That seems inadvisable, so a researcher started collecting whale snot by flying a helicopter over whales when they breach and flying through the mist they spray out of their blowholes. What an odd job that must be.