The Icelandic government has announced that commercial whaling can resume after the activity was suspended for more than two months. In June, Svandís Svavarsdóttir, the country’s minister of food, agriculture…
In September 2022, researchers at BC Whales, a Canadian research nonprofit studying cetaceans in the north of British Columbia province, gasped when they saw a drone image of a humpback…
A multidisciplinary team of researchers comparing bone samples from ancient turtles with skin samples from modern-day green turtles have been able to trace the “food footprints” of this endangered species.…
A recent U.N. report lists tactics and recommendations for reducing human-caused ocean noise, a form of pollution that impacts marine life from tiny plankton to colossal whales. Published in June…
Iceland has suspended its planned hunt for fin whales this year, citing animal welfare concerns. On June 20, Svandís Svavarsdóttir, the country’s minister of food, agriculture and fisheries, announced that…
MEXICO CITY — The U.S. has opened up the possibility of imposing a trade embargo on Mexico due to its failure to stop illegal fishing in the Gulf of California,…
A population of bowhead whales living in the western Arctic has long followed the same migration patterns. But new research suggests that climate change and the subsequent melting of sea…
Nearly twice the size of Africa, the North Pacific seems to be endless. But somewhere in that vast ocean, 30 eastern North Pacific right whales (Eubalaena japonica) live their lives,…
This story is published as part of the Global Indigenous Affairs Desk, an Indigenous-led collaboration between Grist, High Country News, ICT, Mongabay, and Native News Online. NEW YORK — In…
Paul Van Damme and Fortuna Vargas Mejía met 28 years ago in Puerto Villarroel, a village in the Bolivian department of Cochabamba. Van Damme was a Belgian marine biologist who…
When it comes to climate solutions, your first thought may not be the wildebeest. But in the Serengeti, these buffalo-looking antelopes are the key to carbon capture. Wildebeest eat large…
Since late 2021, a highly pathogenic avian influenza virus of the type H5N1 has wreaked havoc on wild and captive birds across Asia, Africa, Europe and North America, killing millions.…
Kalpitiya, SRI LANKA: The Feb. 11 beaching of 14 pilot whales in Kalpitiya, about 172 kilometers (107 miles) from the capital, Colombo, may have occurred due to the recent seismic…
The potentially imminent start of deep-sea mining in international waters could impact whales, dolphins and porpoises, particularly in terms of noise pollution, according to experts who say there needs to…
The U.S. government has denied two petitions to immediately protect critically endangered North Atlantic right whales during the species’ calving season, raising concerns that this population of whales will continue…
JAKARTA — One of the most threatened population of Irrawaddy dolphins in Asia is set to get a much-needed reprieve as officials in Indonesia roll out a ban on unsustainable…
On a Russian-led expedition in the northern Pacific Ocean in the 1740s, German botanist Georg Wilhelm Steller laid eyes on a species that captured his imagination. It looked like a…
READER ADVISORY: This story contains images of dead cetaceans that some viewers may find disturbing. On May 9, Bogdan Bulete, regional head ranger at the Danube Delta Biosphere Reserve in…
COLOMBO — When some of the biggest machines ever made meet the largest animals to ever live, it often doesn’t work out well for the latter. In March 2012, a…
The population of critically endangered North Atlantic right whales continues to dwindle, sparking concerns that the species might be creeping closer to extinction. A newly released estimate suggests that only…
Once common in East Africa, there is now only one known viable dugong population found in this entire region. With just a few hundred left in the waters around the…
A spate of North Atlantic right whale deaths that began in 2017 shook the scientists who study the critically endangered species. That year, 17 whales died, and the losses prompted…
A new study has found that nearly 90% of assessed marine life will be at high or critical risk by the year 2100 if climate change accelerates along a high-emissions…
International wildlife trade regulator CITES recently decided to allow an aquaculture company in Mexico to export captive-raised totoabas, a large fish categorized as being in danger of extinction under Mexican…
Today we’re looking at two stories that show how bioacoustics research is helping us better understand the lives of marine mammals — and we take a listen to some of…
Generally, the word pollution conjures images of billowing smokestacks, oily water and trash-filled highway medians. But for whales, dolphins and porpoises, a subtler and perhaps more sinister source of pollution…
In 2019, researchers sailed to a sprawling seamount off the coast of South Africa, and lowered hydrophones to the seafloor. They picked up all kinds of noises: waves, the crackling of…
Known only by his identity code, ID#35 was the last individual of a doomed subpopulation of freshwater Irrawaddy dolphins (Orcaella brevirostris). He was the sole occupant of a deep pool…
What happens when there’s a dead whale on the beach? In many reported strandings, the next steps look quite similar: where possible, biologists and veterinarians examine the carcass and conduct…
In 2017, a dugong washed ashore on a beach north of Townsville, Queensland, near the Great Barrier Reef. The dead animal had scratch marks on its belly and back, and…
