Baby blue whale video

A baby blue whale filmed off Costa Rica may be the first to have been photographed underwater and adds to evidence that a blue whale hot spot in the Pacific Ocean is a birthing ground for the endangered species.

During a January 2008 expedition to the “Dome”—a warm-water region that draws blue whales from hundreds of miles away—the researchers had begun to lose hope of finding a calf. Then two telltale spouts began erupting at the sea surface.

“Oh, tell me that one of them is a small blow, please,” Bruce Mate, of the Marine Mammal Institute at Oregon State University, says in the documentary.

One of the spouts did turn out to be that of a calf, which approached the research boat—surprising the scientists, given blue whale mothers’ protective reputations.

A photographer and videographer dived in and soon had the visual evidence needed to identify the whale as a baby blue.

From National Geographic. Full article and video HERE

Mediterranean Hammerhead shark population fallen by 99.99%

Conservationists have examined historical fishing records which show that sharks in the Mediterranean Sea have suffered dramatic declines in the past few decades due to overfishing.

The scalloped hammerhead shark. A team of scientists at Dalhousie University in Nova Scotia, Canada, examined fishery logbooks that chart the demise of several shark species. The records show hammerheads all but vanished from coastal waters in 1900, and have barely been spotted in the open sea for 20 years. They say the hammerhead population has fallen 99.99% in 200 years.

Some thresher shark species have dwindled by more than 99%, according to the fishing records examined by conservationists.

Records from long-line fisheries suggest a 99.99% fall in mackerel sharks. The typical size of sharks caught in the Mediterranean is among the lowest in the world, indicating that more young sharks are being caught.

Since the mid-1950s blue sharks have declined by 96.5%.

Conservation groups fear that without strict catch limits on sharks, many of the 47 species in the Mediterranean will soon become locally extinct.

From the Guardian.co.uk: See slideshow story