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Just before he turned 18 Christopher Swann joined the Royal Navy as a diver – ‘frogmen, brass helmets and lead boots, shipwrecks and the sea, this was the sort of adventure I had been longing for’, he said. The first time the Briton went diving was on a ‘bitterly cold winter’s day at the Royal … Read more
A quick-thinking sea otter who found itself involved in a game of cat-and-mouse was left clambering onto a boat for safety after it was chased by an orca. John Dornellas, 37, who works with Coldwater Alaska, an exploration company providing boat trips in the area, filmed the animal frantically swim towards his boat as the orca followed its … Read more
Sperm Whales belong to the suborder of toothed whales and dolphins, known as odontocetes, and is one of the easiest whales to identify at sea. The creatures gained their name during the days of commercial whaling. Whalers thought that their large square heads were huge reservoirs for sperm, because when the head was cut open it … Read more
Sperm Whales belong to the suborder of toothed whales and dolphins, known as odontocetes, and is one of the easiest whales to identify at sea. The creatures gained their name during the days of commercial whaling. Whalers thought that their large square heads were huge reservoirs for sperm, because when the head was cut open it … Read more
Whale skulls have got more lopsided over millions of years of evolution to help them sense objects from reflected sound waves – a process called ‘echo-location’. Scientists at the Natural History Museum studied 84 living and 78 extinct of the aquatic mammals from 50 million years ago to the present day. They found that as whales … Read more
PICTURE BOOKS MINI RABBIT MUST HELP by John Bond (HarperCollins £12.99) Another outing for the willing but accident-prone Mini Rabbit who is tasked by his surprisingly trusting mother with urgently posting a very important letter in the nearby town . . . Chaos ensues, of course, but there’s a funny ending and the pictures are … Read more
Don’t rock the boat! Gentle 35ft humpback whale ‘plays’ with fishermen as it glides under the hull Three men shocked when massive humpback whale played by their fishing boat 35ft whale swam under boat in the Sea of Cortez off San Jose del Cabo, Mexico Played with them for around 45 minutes and knocked their … Read more
A tailless whale that is thought to have had its rear-fins sliced off by a propeller has been spotted swimming up and down the coast of Italy, as fears mount over its chances of survival. The 65-foot fin whale is emaciated with a flopped over dorsal fin, according to researchers in Genoa, suggesting the stricken … Read more
Sperm whale, Thames estuary, February 2019 A beleaguered sperm whale died three days after it swam up the Thames estuary and was unable to escape. The desperate animal also ended up stranded at times, as the level of the tidal river shifted, before it was pronounced dead by rescuers on February 1 this year. The … Read more
30ft long whale dies after becoming stranded for the second time in Welsh estuary A fin whale which became stranded on a beach two times this week has died The animal, nicknamed Henry, found stranded on a sand bank in North Wales Coastguard and drone pilot monitored the inaccessible whale’s health overnight By Lydia Catling … Read more