WHALES AHOY - DARWIN DAILY

Mar 06, 2018 (AFP)

Whalers have for several years failed to meet the quotas set by Oslo and the number of whaling boats has plunged. "I hope the quota and the merging of fishing z...

Before feeding, Risso's dolphins plan their dives

Mar 01, 2018 (UPI)

Because dolphins are mammals and breathe oxygen, they have a finite amount of time underwater tracking down something to eat. Therefore, they must be efficient....

Beluga whales dive deeper, longer to find food in Arctic

Feb 21, 2018 (SPX)

Beluga whales that spend summers feeding in the Arctic are diving deeper and longer to find food than in earlier years, when sea ice covered more of the ocean f...

21 dolphins die after washing up on Mexico beach

Feb 15, 2018 (AFP)

Environmental activists launched a frantic operation to try to save the dolphins after a group of 54 washed up on a rocky beach in Bahia de la Paz, in Mexico's ...

Scientists gain insights into the secretive lives of narwhals

Feb 12, 2018 (UPI)

Narwhals are known for their long tusk. But because they spend much of their lives at significant depths, they're difficult to study. The new insights were made...

Microplastic pollution pushing baleen whales to brink of extinction

Feb 07, 2018 (UPI)

As Nature recently reported, the new listing of the Gulf of Mexico whale, a subspecies of Balaenoptera edeni, as "critically endangered" by the International Un...

Killer whale Wikie proves orcas can mimic human speech

Jan 31, 2018 (UPI)

The 14-year-old female, named Wikie, can say "hello," "one, two," "ah ha," "bye bye," and "Amy." "You cannot pick a word that is very complicated because then I...

Another whale population suddenly dying in Atlantic

Jan 31, 2018 (AFP)

A total of 28 minke whales (Balaenoptera acutorostrata) have died since January 2017 in the Atlantic Ocean from Maine to South Carolina, said the National Ocean...

France overturns ban on captive dolphin breeding

Jan 29, 2018 (AFP)

The previous Socialist government ordered the ban, which also applied to killer whales, last May after complaints from animal rights groups hoping to end marine...

Japan seeks upgraded whaling ship as PM vows to continue hunts

Jan 24, 2018 (AFP)

The Fisheries Agency has requested 100 million yen ($910,000) in the national budget for a study into the future of commercial whaling, an agency official told ...

Canada limits crab fishing to save right whales

Jan 23, 2018 (AFP)

Twelve North Atlantic right whales have been found dead since June 2017 in the busy seaway. The area is home to nearly one quarter of the world's last 458 right...

International call for Japan to halt Antarctic whaling

Dec 18, 2017 (AFP)

Japan's whaling fleet left for the Southern Ocean last month, planning to kill 333 minke whales over a four-month period. Its fisheries agency says the hunt is ...

Can data save dolphins

Dec 14, 2017 (SPX)

Scientists have long sought the answer to why these animals beach, and one recent collaboration hoped to find a clear-cut solution: Researchers from a cross-sec...

Canada boosts protection for endangered whales

Dec 13, 2017 (AFP)

Since June, 12 North Atlantic right whales have been found dead in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, which is home to nearly a quarter of the last 458 specimens of this...

Human interaction causes 'alarming' stress in narwhals

Dec 07, 2017 (AFP)

When fearful, narwhals hold their breath while trying to swim away fast and deep, allowing their heart rates to drop from 60 beats per minute to three or four. ...

Scientists discover most blue whales are right-handed

Dec 06, 2017 (SPX)

That didn't necessarily surprise the researchers because many animals have a right-side bias, and for good reason. In vertebrates, the left hemisphere of the br...

Video tags reveal surprising details of blue whale feeding behavior

Dec 05, 2017 (SPX)

"It's very costly energetically, but it's also very efficient because they get a lot of prey at once," said Ari Friedlaender, a researcher at the UC Santa Cruz ...

Researchers tag Amazon dolphins for the first time

Dec 05, 2017 (UPI)

Researchers organized by the World Wildlife Fund tagged 11 freshwater dolphins in Brazil, Colombia and Bolivia. Transmitters were attached to both Amazonian and...

Four sperm whales die in Indonesia beach rescue

Nov 14, 2017 (AFP)

The whales were among a pod of 10 spotted by locals stranded along Ujong Krueng beach in Aceh province Monday, with one seen farther out in the water. Rescuers ...

Japanese whalers head to Antarctic

Nov 09, 2017 (AFP)

The fisheries agency said a group of five ships, headed by the 8,145-tonne mother ship Nisshin Maru, will conduct the hunt until March to study whale behaviour ...