April 22, 2009 – An entangled humpback whale was freed Monday from a life-threatening entanglement by the Marine Animal Entanglement Response team from the Provincetown Center for Coastal Studies. The entangled whale was reported by the Dolphin VIII whale watch vessel, which stood by the animal until the PCCS team arrived on the scene aboard the R/V Ibis. PCCS rescuers faced strong winds and rough seas, with the weather forecast calling for gale force winds out of the east, the team moved quickly once they reached the whale north of Race Point in Provincetown. The whale was entangled with line and a buoy, which tightly wrapped the base of its tail. The team attached a series of buoys to the entanglement which pulled all of the gear free. Scarring indicates that the whale was likely entangled for some time before it was discovered. It is unknown where and when the whale initially became entangled, but the gear was recovered and will be turned over to NOAA for analysis. Here's the full story at CapeCodToday.com.

April 21, 2009 - Dr Reinhold Hilbig, a zoologist from Stutgart, studied the effects of weightlessness in water as part of research into how humans are affected in space. Forty-nine fish in a mini aquarium were sent up in a plane that went into a steep dive, simulating the loss of gravity astronauts encounter in space flight."They completely lost their sense of balance, behaving like humans who get seasick," said Dr. Hilbig. Here's the full story from Telegraph UK.

March 29th, 2009 - Soft-hearted lobster and crab lovers have long avoided feelings of guilt about boiling or steaming the creatures alive in the belief that they don't feel pain. That comforting thought is being challenged by research conducted by Robert Elwood and Mirjam Appel of Queen's University in Belfast. Elwood and Appel collected hermit crabs from nearby tide pools. They gave small electric shocks to some of the crabs within their shells. When the researchers provided vacant shells, some crabs - but only the ones that had been shocked - left their old shells and entered the new ones, showing stress-related behaviors like grooming of the abdomen or rapping of the abdomen against the empty shell. Here's the full story from Jennifer Viegas, Discovery News.

March 27, 2009 - An estimated 80 right whales, nearly 25% of the species' total population, are engaging in a feeding frenzy off Provincetown. Zooplankton are out there in record numbers - it's their favorite food. People visiting Herring Cove have been able to see the whales from the beach. More whales are expected as the waters warm up and a new influx of plankton arrives. Here's more:
Boston.com
NECN
Reuters