Humpbacks make a splash on World Whale Day

There's much to celebrate when it comes to the charismatic and graceful humpback whale. These beautiful behemoths almost didn't make it to the party.

Photo: Shutterstock

One of the most charismatic of whale species is the humpback. With their long flukes like dancers' arms, their exciting and acrobatic leaps from the water, and their — let's be honest here — adorable frowny faces, humpbacks steal our hearts. In fact, they even get their own holiday. World Whale Day honors the return of humpback whales to Maui during their seasonal migration.

 

The waters off of Maui are the principle mares for mating and calving for humpback whales in the U.S., so the return of these charismatic and gentle giants every year is a wonderful event. World Whale Day is celebrated on Feb. 15, and in Maui features a parade, performances, food and festivities. And there's a whale-sized reason to celebrate this day: humpbacks almost never came back at all. 

 

Photo: Shutterstock

 

Like many whale species, humpbacks were the target of commercial hunters. During the 19th century, the whales were hunted all along the coast, and as the technology of ships and weapons became more sophisticated, the whales didn't stand much of a chance. By 1966, the species was nearly wiped out with only about 5,000 individuals remaining worldwide. Thankfully, this was the year that the Whaling Commission issued a ban on their hunting to prevent extinction. Since protections were put in place, humpback numbers have rebounded to around 20,000 individuals today.

 

It will still be a long time before humpbacks reach their historic numbers, but in the meantime, whale watchers have been excited to see the species' numbers grow and have made the whales' feeding activity into a spectator sport.

 

Photo: Shutterstock

 

California has seen amazing activity from humpback whales in the last few years, with feeding frenzies becoming almost a common sight during their stay along the coast.Kayakers, whale-watchers and photographers came out in droves to witness the activity. And divers have gotten a little too close to the bubble nets of feeding humpbacks, almost becoming part of the meal themselves. Actually, how humpbacks feed is interesting in and of itself.

 

A pod of humpbacks will locate a school of fish. Working in unison, they will swim in a circle below the fish, blowing bubbles in a "net" to corral the fish and force them toward the surface. As the fish gather into a tight ball, the whales make their move and lunge upward, mouths open, to catch as many fish as they can in a huge gulp.

 

Photo: Shutterstock

 

The whales attract other animals to the bait balls they create. Sea birds are all like, "Yesss!!"

 

Photo: Mike Baird/Flickr

 

And sea lions are all like, "Whoooaaaa!!"

Photo: Mike Baird/Flickr

 

And kayakers are all like, "This is awesome! Please don't land on me..."

Photo: Mike Baird/Flickr

 

The return of humpback whales not only to Maui but to the list of "Least Concern" is a wonderful thing to celebrate. You can find out more about World Whale Day and humpbacks by visiting the Pacific Whale Foundation.

 

Photo: Mike Baird/Flickr

Napoli - Cocaina in piante tropicali, arrestato insospettabile medico (1...

 Napoli. Aveva un ruolo centrale in un'organizzazione di narcotrafficanti sgominata dalla Finanza un insospettabile medico chirurgo di Poggiomarino (Napoli), Antonio Franza. L'uomo, secondo quanto appurato dagli investigatori, sfruttando il vivaio della moglie - estranea all'indagine - provvedeva personalmente ad estrarre la cocaina arrivata dall'Argentina e nascosta all'interno del tronco delle piante tropicali 'palo borracho'. Nell'operazione sono state arrestate dieci persone. (13.02.14)

Δημοσιεύθηκε στις 13 Φεβ 2014

Police say they have broken up a crime syndicate and arrested 12 people over USD 13.5 million drug haul seized in New South Wales.

Full Story:

Police in New South Wales said on Thursday that they have broken up a drugs syndicate and arrested 12 people over a $13.5 million haul of methamphetamine.

Police video filmed on Wednesday showed officers arresting three men in Gundagai in southern New South Wales.

Authorities, in a statement released on Thursday, said the group has produced and sold large amounts of cannabis and methamphetamine, also known as ice.

Police said they seized nine kilograms of ice with an estimated street value of A$9 million (USD 8 million) in a raid at Gundagai.

Police added they also raided another 11 properties Wednesday in Sydney, Canberra and near Griffith, Cowra and Batemans Bay.

Winter Storm Battering Northeast U.S.: Latest Space-Based Imagery | Video

The winter storm the battered the southeast United States has now settled over the Northeast. Over a foot of snow, damaging winds and ice are forecasted for Feb. 13th, 2014. NOAA's GOES-East satellite has been providing coverage.

Xinjiang: Landslides from the M=6.9 earthquake in NW China yesterday

13 FEBRUARY 2014

Xinjiang: Landslides from the M=6.9 earthquake in NW China yesterday

The Xinjiang earthquake

The Chinese province of Xinjiang was hit by a shallow, Mw=6.9 earthquake at 9:20 UTC yesterday.  The USGS data suggests that this occurred on a strike-slip fault in a remote and reasonably mountainous area:

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Landslides from the Xinjiang earthquake

The more observant of you will have noticed I have changed the images.  It turns out that the earlier ones weren’t from this earthquake!

A shallow (10 km deep) earthquake of this magnitude certainly has the potential to generate significant numbers of landslides (and of course damage), but of course the human impacts are fortunately limited because of the low population density in this area.  Indeed Xinhua is reporting no casualties and about 7,000 people affected.

However, this event could be interesting from a landslide perspective.  Xinhua has a set of images of the area affected by the earthquake.  One of them shows a landslide-affected road:

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/photo/2014-02/13/c_133113060_14.htm

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Whilst others suggest that the impact of landslides might have been quite light (but note the apparently fresh slumps in the foreground):

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/photo/2014-02/13/c_133113060_14.htm

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Hopefully further images will appear in the coming days.

Απολιθώματα αποκαλύπτουν αρχαιότερη γνωστή γέννηση Fossils reveal earliest known live birth

Fossils reveal earliest known live birth

Fossil of live birth via Ryosuke Motani, PLOS One.

The fossil embryos of three little ichthyosaurs are preserved within the body of their mother that died while giving birth, 248 million years ago.

Three embryos found among the partial fossil remains of an adult ichthyosaur in China could be the earliest-known evidence of a live birth in the fossil record. The discovery strongly supports a theory that these ancient marine reptiles evolved from creatures that gave birth on land. Paleontologists announced the discovery of these 248-million-year-old fossils in a paper published on February 12, 2014 in the journal PLOS One.

Dr. Ryosuke Motani from the University of California, Davis, the paper’s lead author, said in a press release:

The study reports the oldest vertebrate fossil to capture the ‘moment’ of live-birth, with a baby emerging from the pelvis of its mother. The 248-million-year old fossil of an ichthyosaur suggests that live-bearing evolved on land and not in the sea.

The fossils found in China belonged to a genus of ichthyosaur called Chaohusaurus. Having lived 248 million years ago, Chaohusaurus represented an early phase in the evolutionary history of ichthyosaurs. Partial remains of an adult showed three embryo skeletons associated with it. One embryo appeared to be inside the mother’s body, while another was half-way emerged, head-first, from the mother’s pelvis. A third baby appeared to have already been born, lying outside its mother’s fossil skeleton. Given the placement of the embryos, paleontologists believe that this mother died while giving birth.

An artist’s depiction of Chaohusaurus, a genus of ichthyosaur. Image credit: Nobu Tamura via Wikimedia Commons.

During the Mesozoic era, from 250 to 65 million years ago, while dinosaurs walked the Earth, large air-breathing marine reptiles ruled the seas. Ichthyosaurs were a dominant presence in the oceans for much of that time, from about 250 to 90 million years ago. They were fast strong swimmers, shaped very much like modern-day tuna and mackerel.

Previously, scientists thought that the development of embryos inside a mother’s body for Mesozoic marine reptiles was an aquatic adaptation. Discovery of the Chaohusaurus mother and embryos strongly suggests otherwise. The head-first emergence of the baby suggests that the ancestors of these early ichthyosaurs gave birth on land. In contrast, whales and dolphins are usually born tail-first, presumably so that the calf does not drown during the birthing process. It’s possible that further along in their evolutionary history, ichthyosaurs may have also adapted tail-first birth of their young.

The color-coded diagram, from the PLOS One paper, illustrates important features of the ichthyosaur fossils. Black: mother’s vertebral column (backbone); blue: mother’s pelvis and hind flipper; green: mother’s rib bones; orange: embryo inside its mother; yellow: a baby being born head-first; red: remains of the baby already born. The scale bar below the yellow skull is 1 cm (0.4 inches). Image credit: Ryosuke Motani, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0088640.

An image of two other almost-complete Chaohusaurus fossil skeletons, from the research paper in PLOS One, that were also collected from the same quarry as the birthing Chaohusaurus. The three specimens came from Majiashan, in east China’s Anhui Province. Image credit: Ryosuke Motani, doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0088640.

Bottom line: Scientists have discovered the fossil remains of a 248-million-year-old adult ichthyosaur in China that reveals the earliest-known live birth. They found three embryos with the fossil, including one that appeared to be emerging head-first from its mother’s pelvis, indicating that these marine reptiles evolved from ancestors that gave birth on land. These findings were announced in a paper published on February 12, 2014 in the journal PLOS One.

B-2 touchdown

B-2 touchdown

A B-2 Spirit from the 13th Bomb Squadron, Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., lands after completing a Red Flag 14-1 training mission Feb. 4, 2014, at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. The B-2 Spirit is a multi-role bomber capable of delivering both conventional and nuclear munitions, and deploys to Nellis in support of âblue forceâ operations. During Red Flag training missions, the B-2 Spirit aircrews practice infiltrating contested enemy airspace and destroying high value targets. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Joshua Kleinholz/Released)

Flaming Porsche 911s in Super Slow-Mo - INFERNO - Top Gear Live

Stunning slow motion footage of the Inferno Stunt from Top Gear Live 2014 in Glasgow's SSE Hydro. Naomi Lynch stands up to the heat and torches the Porsche 911's with her weaponised flame throwers. The Porsche's then pull a flaming donut!

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