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Whale culture and conservation: to infinity and beyond …

Philippa Brakes

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Whale culture and conservation: to infinity and beyond …

By Philippa Brakes / 25th May 2021

In 1977, the Voyager 1 and 2 spacecraft launched, carrying with them the song of humpback whales and greetings in 55 human languages. Why was…

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Coronavirus and New Zealand dolphins: many questions, few answers

By Philippa Brakes / 5th May 2020

Like people over the world, New Zealanders have recently been faced with a lot of time at home. Fortunately, humans are remarkably resourceful and we…

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West African bycaught dolphins provide insights for new method for health assessment

By Philippa Brakes / 23rd March 2017

Winners of the 2016 WDC Bharathi Viswanathan Award, Marie-Francoise Van Bressem and colleagues, studied photographs of dolphins bycaught in fishing gear from three Ghanaian ports, to…

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Sperm whale cultural turn-over: moving on out

By Philippa Brakes / 25th November 2016

Decades of research on sperm whales in the Pacific has revealed a most remarkable social event.  Researchers have documented the large-scale relocation of cultural groups…

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Whales and dolphins mourning their dead?

By Philippa Brakes / 19th July 2016

There’s some  debate about what biologists call epimeletic behaviour in whales and dolphins. Essentially, this refers to the giving of care or attention to another…

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New film looks at the issue of whale and dolphin rights

By Philippa Brakes / 22nd February 2016

By All Rights, a new documentary by US filmmaker Stan Minasian, is the first documentary to tackle the issue of whales’ and dolphins’ emerging rights: Rights to…

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