Longline harvesters in Southeast Alaska are embarked on the development of a new user-friendly tool to detect sperm whales and avoid depredation on longline gear. The Alaska Longline Fishermen’s Association (ALFA) was awarded a one-year, $245,000 grant from the NOAA Bycatch Reduction and Engineering Program to adapt towed array hydrophone systems that can spot whales […]
[wds id=”5″] Sperm whales have been a part of American culture ever since Captain Ahab set out aboard the Pequod to find the infamous white whale in Moby Dick. Large, noisy, and often social, sperm whales are a remarkable species found from the equator to the poles. Here are four reasons sperm whales are special: […]
The idea that a sperm whale can use its massive head as a battering ram to sink ships has been hotly debated at least since Moby Dick was published in 1851. University of Queensland researcher Dr Olga Panagiotopoulou, part of an international team researching the theory, says scientific evidence about the phenomenon remains scarce. “The […]