They can also be swallowed by marine animals like whales and turtles, causing them to starve.
But many of the other journalists here were on their first - and there's been widespread and wide-eyed amazement along the press balcony at how little time is spent discussing things like whales, or even whaling.
The roadside attractions died like beached whales, and McDonald's popped up at almost every exit ramp.
Like many whales, individuals of this species sometimes misnavigate and end up stranding themselves on the world's beaches.
Our ability to understand these animals is very limited, and their only connection to the surface biosphere is through a few food chain connections (like sperm whales) that can survive diving to these depths.
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They end up looking like beached whales.
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Brazil and Chile are just two countries that have created huge coastal sanctuaries, some running thousands of miles, where whales like Tilikum can return to an active life, one in which they can frolic and explore.
With the massive whales come other giants of the sea, like whale sharks and sperm whales and occasionally hammerheads, sea lions and dolphins.
The whales are known as "canaries of the sea" for their high-pitched chirps, but while a number of anecdotal reports have described whales making human-like speech, none had ever been recorded.
Much of the vitriol was real, reflecting the deep divide in the world between people who see whales as intrinsically special creatures that should not be harmed under any circumstances, and those for whom whales are wild creatures like any others.
Scammers would rather not deal with the vast majority of people on the web, and so they use strategies like this to whittle down to the whales.
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They cry that such equipment might "harass" whales, sea lions and the like.
Analysis of the recordings showed that the frequencies within them were spread out into "harmonics" in a way very unlike whales' normal vocalisations and more like those of humans.
Those that did not have limits placed upon access would not be around for Ostrom to study: like dodos, passenger pigeons and damn nearly the whales and buffalo.
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"It could either be reports of whales and dolphins people see by chance but preferably we would like people to commit to boat-based watches or two-hour land-based watches, " said Ms Gibas.
The whales are jet-black in color and have no shark-like dorsal fin.
These are cool tropical islands where humpback whales calve in the winter, and where, in some places, one can feel like the only visitor that ever ventured this far.
Such damage has long been suspected, since whales employ their own form of sonar for navigating and hunting, and also use sonar-like low frequency sound for communicating with each other (so-called whale song).
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