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In the same way that scientists have studied Antarctica for what insights could prove valuable for a Mars mission, the Whale-SETI group said its studies with humpback whales can help them develop “intelligence filters” used in the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. A team that includes a UC Davis professor and a scientist with SETI, the organization that searches the cosmos for signs of alien intelligence, has cited a breakthrough here on Earth – a 20-minute “conversation” with a humpback whale in the wild. The Templeton Whale-SETI group said its findings on what it calls “non-human intelligence communication” could help in...

It might sound like a scene out of Avatar 2. But scientists claim it's now possible to have a conversation with a whale, following a 20-minute chat with a humpback whale in Southeast Alaska. A 38-year-old whale named Twain 'spoke' with the researchers from the SETI Institute and UC Davis by responding to a pre-recorded 'contact call'. This marks the first communication between humans and whales in their own language, according to the team. Looking ahead, the researchers say the conversation could pave the way for interactions with aliens in the future. In the study, researchers from SETI studied how...

A 30-foot humpback whale was found dead on the shores of Fire Island on Friday morning — at least the 18th doomed humpback discovered on the East Coast this year. The tragic majestic mammal was found belly-up on the eastern side of Smith Point County Park in Shirley, Long Island, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said. The animal’s body has been collected for a necropsy, NOAA told Patch in a statement. The cause of death is unknown.

Twitter Two kayakers were nearly swallowed by a humpback whale while trying to go whale watching off the coast of Avila Beach, California. The whale's attack on Julie McSorley and Liz Cottriel's kayak, who miraculously escaped unharmed from the animal's blow, was recorded from the kayak itself by the two friends and other witnesses to the event.

Team JAJO had some special –– and terrifying –– visitors while sailing in the Strait of Gibraltar as part of the 2023 Ocean Race on Thursday. A group of orcas, otherwise known as killer whales, surrounded the Dutch crew’s yacht, first circling the boat and then ramming into it. “This was a scary moment,” Jelmer van Beek, Team JAJO skipper, said, according to the Associated Press. “Three orcas came straight at us and started hitting the rudders. Impressive to see the orcas, beautiful animals, but also a dangerous moment for us as a team.” Some of Team JAJO’s crew banged...

The sixth century historian Procopius, in both his History of the Wars, and The Secret History, mentions a sea monster--a gigantic whale--named Porphyrios that dwelt in the Bosporus Strait and the Black Sea, and which terrorized the shipping lanes around Constantinople for about fifty years, and which causes significant headaches for the Emperor Justinian & the Roman navy. Our information is fairly limited, but what can we say about this real life Moby Dick?SOURCES:The Secret History, ProcopiusThe History of the Wars, ProcopiusA Cabinet of Byzantine Curiosities, KaldellisPinned by The Historian's CraftPorphyrios: The Sea Monster that Terrorized the Late Roman Empire3:51...

Conservative watchdog groups ran a guerrilla-style ad campaign on the New Jersey shore for Earth Day, drawing attention to a surge in whale deaths amid the growth of offshore wind farms. Beachgoers in Atlantic City on Saturday looked on as a single-propeller plane carried a a message waving from a banner — “SAVE-WHALES-STOP-WINDMILLS.ORG” — and drivers heading out of town saw a billboard with the same message and a picture of a dead whale washed ashore.

The ocean is one of the planet’s great carbon sinks, absorbing nearly a third of the atmosphere’s greenhouse gas emissions. Swimming in its depths are the great whales, a population whose sheer physical mass allows them to exert an outsized influence on the ecosystem around them. While researchers have long suspected that whales are key players in the ocean’s carbon cycle, quantifying exactly how these animals alter the seas — and what we lost with their decimation a century ago — has proved difficult. Now a group of scientists has taken that challenge on. A team of ecologists, biologists and...

You would have to be hiding under a rock to miss this video this week. But if somehow didn’t catch it, here it is. The video was filmed during a whale watching excursion in Gustavus, Alaska. The guests sure got what they paid for. I’m glad they come away just a little wet and with a great story to tell.

On her podcast, Fast Politics, author and journalist Molly Jong-Fast asked Gisele Barreto Fetterman, wife of Democratic Pennsylvania Senate candidate, John Fetterman, about an interview of her husband that resulted in controversy and accusations of ableism this week. Mrs. Fetterman expressed outrage that the reporter has not faced any “consequences” for it. When NBC News reporter Dasha Burns interviewed the Pennsylvania candidate, he relied on a closed-caption display as a visual aid, due to what he and his campaign have characterized as “audio processing” issues he’s experienced following a stroke this year. While talking about the interview, Burns noted that...

Sharks devoured whale off Big Pine KeyThis month proved to be deadly for two endangered sperm whales that beached themselves in the water of the Florida Keys last week. A newborn calf became separated from its mother and couldn’t survive on its own. But the adult male that was found days later apparently was killed by something a lot more insidious, News 6 partner WPLG reported. What was once a 47-foot majestic sperm whale was later devoured by hungry sharks off Big Pine Key. “I was amazed just seeing the sharks there,” said Capt. Jack Carlson, owner of Two Conchs...

A dead whale washed ashore at Asilomar State Beach in Pacific Grove on Tuesday. According to state beach officials, a deceased fin whale showed up on the beach at some point Tuesday morning. The carcass was stuck on the surf line on Tuesday. The whale, which measures around 30 feet long, is described as being decomposed. A team from Moss Landing Marine Labs was called to the area to inspect the whale and possibly take some samples. Beach officials said they had no plans to remove the whale's carcass as they'd prefer to let nature run its course.

His name’s not Jonah — but this Cape Cod man sure has something in common with the biblical figure now. Commercial lobster diver Michael Packard was going about his business off the coast off Provincetown, Mass. when he was swallowed whole by a humpback whale — trapped in its gullet for nearly a minute before being coughed back up, according to a report. Packard, 56, was about 35 feet below the surface near Herring Cove Beach at 8 a.m. Friday when the massive mammal tried to turn him into breakfast, the Cape Cod Times reported. “All of a sudden, I...

Whale swallows man

A Cape Cod fisherman is recovering after miraculously emerging without serious injuries from spending nearly a minute in the maw of a humpback whale who mistook him for a snack. “I was lobster diving and a humpback whale tried to eat me,” fisherman Packard wrote on Facebook. This salty tale begins innocuously, with the 56-year-old sea captain Packard on Friday morning looking for lobsters near Provincetown, where he’s from. He dove into the ocean to check a trap — when a passing whale gulped him down. “He was in a whale’s mouth for 30 to 40 seconds, and then he...

Part of a massive animal skull washed up on a New Jersey beach on Memorial Day after a storm passed through the area, and authorities have finally solved the mystery as to what it is.On Tuesday, the Island Beach State Park, in Berkeley Township, New Jersey, posted photos on Facebook of a massive skull with a beak shape some found to be reminiscent of a long-extinct dinosaur.The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and the Island Beach State Park confirmed that it was the ventral, or lower, jaw and skull of a minke whale.

A dead gray whale was found Wednesday in the San Francisco Bay, near Crissy Field. Amir Ali Bigdeli was taking his usual morning walk, right by St. Francis Yacht Club in Crissy Field, when he spotted the whale’s body floating in the water. He snapped a picture of the whale, which he estimated to be over 40 feet long, a few hours after his walk. Bigdeli, who lives in the Marina district, told SFGATE that he spoke to swimmers in the San Francisco Bay, and found that the whale may have died recently. “According to the swimmers who were close...

A new species of whale has been discovered in the Gulf of Mexico — but scientists warn the animal is critically endangered. The newly-identified species of baleen whale has been dubbed “Rice’s whale” after American biologist Dale Rice, who was the first to recognize the mammal. Researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) previously thought the whales were a subspecies of the Bryde’s whale, however, the agency announced that it was actually a new species entirely in a paper published in Marine Mammal Science.

On a clear November day in 1970 in Florence, Ore., state highway engineers lit 20 cases of dynamite to blow apart a 45-foot sperm whale carcass that had washed up on the beach and festered for three days. Unfortunately, the explosion did not go as planned. The engineers intended for the 8-ton carcass to be thrown into the ocean in pieces. Instead, chunks of flesh flew toward the beachside town and fell from the sky, crushing a car a quarter-mile away and raining down on a crowd who had gathered to watch the pyrotechnics. The spectacular failure, and the remarkable...

The spectacle of the state of Oregon blowing up a dead whale on a beach in Florence 50 years ago is known worldwide.It’s estimated the video shot by KATU photographer Doug Brazil and reported on by KATU’s former reporter and anchor Paul Linnman has been viewed upward of 350 million times. WATCH: The Exploding Whale remastered: 50th anniversary of legendary Oregon event But it may not have become the phenomenon that it is today without the help of humor columnist Dave Barry.In 1990, 20 years after it happened, Barry wrote an article about the event and the story absolutely exploded....