Dave Wiley, NOAA Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary in Scituate, MA

How do you know what whales do in the wild? They are too big for an aquarium and disappear from view at every dive. New technologies let scientists attach body movement and acoustic (sound) or video recording tags to whales to watch and listen as they go about their underwater lives. The results surprised even the scientists that had spent their whole lives studying the animals!

Resources to access at home:

Activities

» NOAA National Marine Sanctuaries (NMS) Humpback Whale Migration Game (online)
» New Bedford Whaling Museum Whale Activities
» Hawaiian Islands Humpback Whale National Marine Sanctuary Activity Book you can print out. This includes a whale identification activity, word search, connect the dots, and more.

Videos and Background

» Dive in and find the National Marine Sanctuary closest to you
» NOAA Oceans Today 4-minute video and short story: Ocean as a Lab: Whale Tagging in Antarctica
» NOAA NMS 45 second video: Tagging Humpback Whales in Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary
» DE Sea Grant 15 Second Science Videos: All about whales with Bob Rocha, New Bedford Whaling Museum
» NOAA NMS: Dive into Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary with these short videos on topics such as humpback whales, sand lance, Christmas bird count, gray seals, and more!
» NOAA NMS story: High-Tech Whale Tagging featuring Dave Wiley
» NOAA actions taken to reduce ship strikes