© 2024 254 North Front Street, Suite 300, Wilmington, NC 28401 | 910.343.1640
News Classical 91.3 Wilmington 92.7 Wilmington 96.7 Southport
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
CAPE FEAR MEMORIAL BRIDGE CLOSURE: UPDATES, RESOURCES, AND CONTEXT

CoastLine: Whales Share Their Biographies Through Their Baleen, Say Researchers

Georgia Dept. of Natural Resources / NOAA Fisheries

       

                                                

Whales are the largest mammals on earth.  They’ve also been around a long time.  According to the University of California, Berkeley’s Evolutionary Biology website,  the first whales evolved over 50 million years ago from a terrestrial ancestor. 

Consider the human – thought to have first appeared in Africa about 300-thousand years ago.  Although whales and humans have shared the planet since humans popped up, it’s striking how little we understand about these marine creatures.

We do know their closest living relative is the hippopotamus.  Researchers are just now studying how whales, who breathe air oxygen to survive, can dive as deeply as they do and stay submerged as long as they do.  One of the ways they’re learning about whale physiology is by studying their tissue.  

Researchers are also newly able to extract data from a whale’s baleen to learn about their ecosystem, feeding habits, and reproduction – even from whales who swam in the earth’s oceans as far back as the 19th century. 

Guests: 

Alyson Fleming, Ph.D.Adjunct Research Faculty member at the Center for Marine Science, University of North Carolina Wilmington

Hillary Glandonis a Post Doctoral Research Associate in the Department of Biology and Marine Biology, University of North Carolina Wilmington 

In the show's introduction, we hear actual whale sounds, courtesy of The Oceania Project, a research and conservation nonprofit out of Australia.

This edition of CoastLine originally aired June 20, 2019.        

Rachel hosts and produces CoastLine, an award-winning hourlong conversation featuring artists, humanitarians, scholars, and innovators in North Carolina. The show airs Wednesdays at noon and Sundays at 4 pm on 91.3 FM WHQR Public Media. It's also available as a podcast; just search CoastLine WHQR. You can reach her at rachellh@whqr.org.
Rachel is a graduate of UNCW's Master of Public Administration program, specializing in Urban and Regional Policy and Planning. She also received a Master of Education and two Bachelor of Arts degrees in Political Science and French Language & Literature from NC State University. She served as WHQR's News Fellow from 2017-2019. Contact her by email: rkeith@whqr.org or on Twitter @RachelKWHQR