News

Dick Watching: The Musket


by julietlinderman No Comments

Posted by Juliet Linderman

Hey dudes and dudettes, ladies and germs, cetaceans and crustaceans, and welcome back to Dick Watching on Vol. 1, where we bring you a boatload of news about wonderful, wonderful whales. You guys ready to take the plunge?

  • Let’s start things off with a calendar listing, shall we? If you’re in the San Diego area you’ll be excited to know that ‘tis the season for more than 20,000 gray whales to return to Point Loma as part of their migration. There will be guest speakers and a tide pool, so get pet some sea creatures, why dontcha!
  • The brilliant whale scientists in Provincetown are at it again. Last year, they kicked off a study of North Atlantic right whales, which are some of the rarest whales in the world, with an aerial study allowing scientists to watch behavioral patterns of these creatures from low-flying planes. According to this article, scientists caught glimpses of 201 of these big guys—and there are only 400 in the whole world. The Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies and its founder with the coolest, most science-y name ever Charles Stormy Mayo, want to essentially study the midnight snacking patterns of these right whales in order to learn as much as possible about their habitats and diets. They start up January 15th, so get ready!
  • I just discovered this: www.deepseanews.com. So, you’re welcome. But anyway, one scientist over there has published a very interesting blog post about the politics of killing whales in Iceland. He raises some good points, so for those whale lovers up for some spicy debate, check this out. This is relevant, considering the heat Iceland has taken recently from the likes of the Obama Administration, who has condemned Iceland’s defiance of anti-whaling laws, and its continued hunt of endangered whales like the fin whale (who are, for the record, very large and cute).
  • There were four beached beaked whales in New Zealand, but some whale-loving passersby helped send one of these little guys from the sand back into the water, where he was able to swim away.
  • Lastly: The Moby Dick Read-a-Thon happened. And I couldn’t go, for really, really sad reasons (work). So, there it is. I missed it. But according to my reliable source a record-number of 30 (THIRTY!) Dick lovers made it through all 26 hours. Now that’s somethin’!