New whale species discovered off coast of Mexico

[kpete]

Ensenada, BCN, Mexico – Dec. 8, 2020 – Researchers working with Sea Shepherd Conservation Society believe that they have discovered a previously unknown species of whale off the western coast of Mexico.





On the morning of November 17, scientists on board Sea Shepherd vessel Martin Sheen observed three beaked whales surfacing in nearby waters. The sightings occurred 100 miles north of Mexico’s San Benito Islands, a group of three remote islands located approximately 300 miles from the US border.

The expedition, led by renowned beaked whale researchers Dr. Gustavo Cárdenas Hinojosa from the Marine Mammal Research Group of CONANP, Dr. Jay Barlow, and Dr. Elizabeth Henderson, Leader of the Whale Acoustic Reconnaissance Program of NIWC PAC in collaboration with Sea Shepherd’s Scientific Department, aimed to study the cetaceans present in the waters surrounding the San Benito Islands. The team set forth to identify a beaked whale species associated with an unidentified acoustic signal previously recorded in the area.

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[Blues Heron]

1. Don't tell Japanese whalers - they'll be drooling at the prospect of a new flavor

[Sneederbunk]

2. Could just be a clever whale messing with us.

[DFW]

3. Maybe they were hunted to near-extinction in the 19th century, and no one then noticed.

Since this habitat with its small number of whales was too remote to make it commercially worthwhile to hang out there and hunt the rest of them down, it's conceivable that a small population survived unmolested up to now.

[malaise]

5. Profound

+1,000

[DFW]

6. One of my all-time favorites

I still get nasty comments from the God Squad for that, but who asked them, anyway?

[malaise]

10. My entire belief system revolves around nature

I have no gods. I ignore the god squad - my mother was an obsessive Catholic and she knew I had absolutely no faith in gods.

[DFW]

11. Then the Hubert Reeves quote must have been your whole tenet in a nutshell.

I find it quite encompassing, too.

[malaise]

12. Precisely

although I try hard to be kinder and gentler than animals that don't have options other than devouring one another or survival

[Bayard]

4. May they live in peace.

[DFW]

7. I wish Mexico would declare the whole area, with a 500 mile radius, a marine sacntuary

From what I understand, a 500 mile radius would probably include Orange County, but I don't care, and probably neither would Orange County. After all, no one goes hunting whales in Huntington Beach, anyway, right?

Declare the place off limits for fifty years until the population has a chance to regenerate, and then allow those of our great-grandchildren that can't afford the Galápagos to go on whale watches. For the rest of us mortals, a few well-filmed BBC documentaries would do fine. Just knowing they survived, and we helped them do so would be reward enough for me.

[panader0]

8. I love Ensenada--had a lot of fun there.

Once, sailing south out of San Diego, (my boss had a sailboat), we spotted several whales, greys I believe.
He sailed toward where he thought they'd surface. Sure enough, they came up very close to the boat.
I held one of the stays and leaned out and could almost touch the whale. So cool. I've seen whales several times
but never that close.

[KY_EnviroGuy]

9. "an unidentified acoustic signal previously recorded in the area" is like.....

someone listening to recordings of chatter in a train station and detecting a previously unknown human language.

These researchers are amazing......