Japan's fisheries minister said Tuesday his country will never stop hunting whales, despite fierce criticism from other nations and violent clashes at sea with militant conservationists.
Falklands Conservation confirmed the stranding of long-finned pilot whales including the death of 22 adults on the east coast of East Falkland at Pleasand Roads, half way between Stanley and Mare Harbour.
New Zealand scientists have made a world first discovery when they identified two skeletons belonging to the spade-toothed beaked whale, which is so rare that nobody has seen one alive. A 17-foot whale mother and her calf beached themselves in New Zealand in 2010 and were buried misidentified for a much more common type of whale that occasionally strands on NZ beaches.
Saving the whales is something Argentines take so seriously that authorities are planning to shoot seagulls that have developed a habit of attacking the huge marine mammals. But environmentalists say the plan is misguided because humans are the real problem, creating so much garbage that the seagull population has exploded, endangering the whales.
Scientists have long known that man-made, underwater noises — from engines, sonar, weapons testing, and such industrial tools as air guns used in oil and gas exploration — are deafening whales and other sea mammals.
By a vote of 38 in favour to 21 opposed, the South Atlantic Whale Sanctuary (SAWS) failed to meet the International Whaling Commission’s (IWC) required 3/4 majority to pass and be established.
Greenpeace and a vast coalition of environmental groups are calling on the International Whaling Commission (IWC) to establish a sanctuary in the South Atlantic Ocean that would protect Southern Hemisphere whales from commercial whaling for their entire lives.
Environment organizations meeting in Panama will demand the creation of a whales’ sanctuary in the south Atlantic and south Pacific, at the coming meeting of the International Whaling Commission.
The number of blue whales sighted in the south of Chile increased significantly this austral summer as the cetacean approached the area to feed on the rich waters of the south Pacific according to a scientific report from the Austral University Blue Whale Centre released this week.
Australian researchers on Thursday revealed they had filmed a pod of extremely rare Shepherd's beaked whales for the first time ever.The Australian Antarctic Division team was tracking blue whales off the coast of Victoria state in January when they spotted the reclusive mammals, which are so rarely seen that no population estimates of the species exist.