Hunting whales is irrelevant to feeding Japan’s population, draws global condemnation and is certainly not economic. So why does Japan still do it? The answer from the Japanese government is that whaling is an ancient part of Japanese culture, that fishermen have caught whales for centuries, and that Japan will never allow foreigners to tell […]
Tag: Fin Whale
Icelanders Don’t Like Whale Meat – So Why the Hunts?
When it comes to commercial whaling, Japan is in the limelight. The country has been widely accused of using a scientific research program as a guise for hunting hundreds of whales a year and selling their meat. Last year, an international court agreed that the program isn’t scientific and ordered Japan to shut it down—to […]
Video: Mysterious New Humpback Whale “Song” Detected?
The latest release in the humpback whale’s haunting sound collection is a track so unusual that scientists hardly know what to make of it. Unlike anything on the hit album Songs of the Humpback Whale (released in 1970, the wildlife recording went multi-platinum), the mysterious new noise has such a low beat it’s scarcely audible. […]
Experts puzzled as 30 whales stranded in ‘unusual mortality event’ in Alaska
Thirty large whales have recently washed ashore on Alaskan coasts, prompting a federal agency to declare an “unusual mortality event” and mount an official investigation into the mystery of what could be killing so many marine mammals. Scientists from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (Noaa) are “very concerned” about how many whales are stranding […]
Iceland brewery makes beer using smoked whale testicles
Icelandic brewery Stedji, which is producing the beer in time for the country’s mid-winter festival, Thorri, said the Hvalur 2 beer was made with the testicles of fin whales – which are classified as endangered on the conservation Red List – smoked in a “traditional way” with dried sheep dung. The move, which comes a […]
Video: Massive Fin Whale Delights Onlookers with Rare Breach
Late last month, a playful fin whale gave a lucky group of spectators the experience of a lifetime as he breached from the Strait of Gibraltar, a narrow strait that connects the Atlantic Ocean to the Mediterranean Sea. Fortunately, a research assistant for Conservation, Information and Research on Cetaceans (CIRCE) happened to have her camera […]
Whales Get Sunburns, Too
If you head to the beach without sunscreen, you’ll probably return home with a scarlet, painful sunburn. That’s because you’ve exposed your skin to several hours of UV rays, which damage DNA within your skin cells. But did you know that whales can get sunburned, too? Researchers discovered that blue, sperm, and fin whales also […]
Stop the Slaughter of Fin Whales for Pet Treats
The story about endangered whales being slaughtered by Icelanders in the North Atlantic and shipped to Japan to be turned into dog food was first published on 29 May 2013 . Within one week more than 1 million wildlife supporters signed the petition, and Dutch ports were closed to the transfer of whale meat. The […]