Two commercial whaling vessels departed on the 10th and 11th of June from the Japanese ports of Shimonoseki and Innoshima to kill up to 187 Bryde’s whales and 25 sei whales. Japan resumed commercial whaling three years ago after leaving the International Whaling Commission (IWC – the body that regulates whaling) and following widespread international […]
Tag: whales
Dead Baby Orca Shows Harmful Chemical Levels
An autopsy of a 10-day old orca found in Norway in 2017 revealed high levels of chemicals, according to a new study. Live Science reported that the young killer whale was one of eight orcas tested in the study. Seven of the tested orcas had levels of polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB) high enough to cause health […]
2 Whales Killed By Visiting Naval Destroyer
Two whales were found lodged in a naval destroyer in California, CNN reported. The naval destroyer was visiting from Australia. While it’s rare to have ships strike whales, it shows the amount of traffic that happens along the busy Pacific Coast. “The Navy takes marine mammal safety seriously and is disheartened this incident occurred,” a […]
Bottlenose Dolphin Adopts a Pilot Whale Calf
New Zealand marine biologists spotted a sweet adoption story recently. A mother bottlenose dolphin has adopted a baby pilot whale! Far Out Ocean Research Collective spotted the pair in the Bay of Islands in Northern New Zealand. While adoptions are not unheard of among marine mammals, this pair’s size difference is certainly notable. Pilot whales […]
A killer snap! Orca enthusiast captures incredible photo of a rare newborn calf swimming with its mother off the coast of Scotland
A lucky orca enthusiast has captured some incredible photos of a newborn calf swimming with its mother off the coast of Scotland. The orange-tinted baby was accompanied by four older killer whales as it played in the Moray Firth, near Duncansbayhead, Caithness. Wildlife enthusiast Karen Munro, 44, travels around Scotland from her home in Thurso, […]
Hunger, disorientation blamed for pilot whale mass stranding in Indonesia
DENPASAR, Indonesia — Lung damage, hunger and disorientation have been cited as the factors that led a pod of 52 pilot whales to a mass stranding on an Indonesian island earlier this year. Indonesian wildlife experts last week publicly announced their findings from the necropsies conducted on 34 of the 52 short-finned pilot whales (Globicephala […]
Humpback Whale Habitat Protected by Biden Administration
The Biden Administration took a significant step to protect humpback whales. The National Marine Fisheries Service (NFMS), National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and Commerce departments have finalized a rule to protect ocean habitats used by humpback whales. Humpback whales were once hunted to the brink of extinction and now two of the five “breeding […]
Whales in Danger in United States Waters
A new opinion piece in The Hill is calling for extra protection for whales in the United States. Kyla Bennett, the science policy director at Public Employees for Environmental responsibility (PEER) called on the current administration to act to save the North Atlantic right whale, Bryde’s whale, and North Pacific right whale. Each of these […]