Hi everyone,
Happy Monday and welcome to the last Baleen edition in August… yikes! How is it September this week already?! Baleen has been running for over six months now and it’s so exciting to see the Pod grow during this time.
Thanks so much for sticking with it and it’s so motivating to see you coming back to read the latest ocean news each week. Some cool stuff in this week’s edition - including dolphin rescuers, doggy rescuers and magnetic microplastic solutions - so here goes…
🐳 Whales & dolphins
Whale, that’s exciting: Blue whales are back in Spain’s Atlantic coast after over 40 years…and the video of the whale playing with dolphins is just wow! (Guardian)
Dolphinately wish I was there: swimmers in Hayle, Cornwall, had quite the show from a dolphin - please remember to keep your distance from marine life! (ITV)
Four legged whales: new species discovered that lived 43 million years ago (BBC)
Hey, mama: Spirtle, the famous sunburned dolphin, has had a baby (WDC)
Rescue dolphins: Spirtle was also part of a pod of dolphins that helped the RNLI rescue a swimmer in trouble (BBC)
Stay home: police urge Wellington residents not to come to see the orca pod that’s been spotted, as lockdown restrictions remain in place (Project Jonah)
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🦈🐙 Marine animals
“Me want cookie”: cookiecutter sharks mainly eat small prey despite evidence of their epic plug-shaped bites on dolphins and larger animals (Science Daily)
Virgin birth: a smoothhound shark that’s been in a tank for 10 years without any males has just had a baby (Live Science)
Population increase: for the first time in 30-40 years, white sharks are starting to return to parts of water in Atlantic Canada (Halifax Today)
Nom nom nom: scientists on the lookout for basking sharks come across great whites feeding on a whale carcass (Live Science)
Turtle power: I think superdogs that save turtles is all I need to say here (Guardian)
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🎣🚯 Threats
A magnetic solution: fighting microplastics with magnets (BBC)
Stop acting like trash: 300 tonnes of rubbish dumped by holidaymakers in Brighton since June (BBC)
💰 Opportunities
Marine Science Institute: at UCSB is hiring a Junior Specialist in Marine Ecology. Apply by 1 Sept.
Marine Conservation Society: has heaps of awesome jobs going…!
Want more opportunities? the fab Ocean Opportunities is a brilliant resource with highly curated marine opps that you should go check out right now!
Thanks to everyone who shares Baleen - helping us reach new Pod members is one of the best ways you can support the newsletter!
🐚❄️ Ecosystems & ice
Miracle crop: US seaweed growers waiting for an important law change (Guardian)
95 percent: of the ocean’s surface to change for the worse if we don’t take action (Science Alert)
Close call: an Antarctica iceberg twice the size of Chicago had a near miss in what could have been a massive iceberg collision (Science Alert)
Warp speed: melting glaciers are causing the Earth’s crust to warp (Independent)
Troubling melting: NASA scientist worried by large areas of melted Greenland ice sheets spotted from a plane (Mashable)
📣 In case you missed it
Revisiting your favourite recent stories
1, 2, 3: Cool video of a syncro spy hop by three humpbacks (FTW)
Eight things: you can do right now to help the climate crisis (The Times)
Wow! cool shots of a thresher shark breaching off the Pembrokeshire coast (LadBible)
Breathing room: will the return of tourism post-pandemic pose a threat to endangered loggerhead turtles (Guardian)
That’s all for this week, folks. Thanks for reading to the end and for all your likes, shares and clicks - they really do make all the difference.
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For those celebrating the bank holiday this weekend (not me - freelance life! :s), I hope you have a lovely long weekend and look forward to sharing even more news with you next Monday.
Melissa