Whale

The blue whale may be the largest animal ever, but new research has found it only claimed the title relatively recently. By comparing the bones of modern whales to fossils, a team of scientists has traced the growth spurt to about 4.5 million years ago, when climate change increased the food supply.

Scientists have never been able to pin down the exact purpose a narwhal tusk serves, but now using drones, they've uncovered direct evidence of the overgrown tooth in action, with a healthy appetite appearing to be a key motivator.

Scientists know little about the behavior of baby humpback whales during their first long migration, but new recordings appear to have unearthed a crafty technique that might just help keep them out of the jaws of killer whales.

While underwater drones and robotic vessels provide scientists with handy ways to explore our world's oceans, there's another more obvious way to plumb the depths of our seas: by enlisting the help of the whales that dwell there.

Scientists have picked up a "crazy," complex call from the depths of the Mariana Trench. Although the mysterious sounds haven't been attributed to an exact species just yet, marine researchers believe it's less the call of Cthulu and more a previously-unknown dialect of baleen whale song.

A wide array of technology has been deployed to track and study whales unobtrusively, and now a team from Stanford has used a new suite of sensors to study the feeding habits of baleen whales in greater detail and released a video from the vantage point of riding on its back.

​A humpback whale off the coast of California that was entangled in rope seems to have freed itself from the lines. A video from a tour operator caught the detangled giant mammal swimming in the waters of the state's southern coast, along with some frolicking dolphin companions.​

​​Drones are becoming hugely valuable tools in adding to what we know about the creatures of the ocean. Now researchers have dispatched them to study the behaviour of southern right whales and captured a very rare sight, a white calf splashing about off the coast of Western Australia. ​

​Last month, an acoustic monitoring buoy was put in place in the New York Bight, listening out for sounds from some of the world’s largest mammals. The buoy has already picked up sounds from a heard of fin whales – the second largest whale species on the planet.

​Earthrace has been criss-crossing the globe in search of illegal fishing and hunting operations since 2006. Now, the team is trying to create a new trimaran capable of assisting law enforcement on long-range, open-water missions.

Whales inhabiting the waters off of New York and New Jersey can now be heard in real-time thanks to an acoustic monitoring buoy created by a consortium of marine scientists. The device allows the group to track, study and protect several species of endangered baleen whales.

New Zealand lists them as a critically threatened species, so catching a Bryde's whale in action is a pretty rare event. One team of marine scientists has not only sighted the endangered cetacean, but done so through the eye of a camera drone, meaning we can all have a gander too.