It was ‘World Whale Day’ on 20^th February and there were several stories which grabbed the headlines. Firstly, from WWF, a ‘world-first map exposes growing dangers along whale superhighways’. A new report from WWF and partners provides the first truly comprehensive look at whale migrations and the threats they face across all oceans, highlighting how the cumulative impacts from industrial fishing, ship strikes, pollution, habitat loss, and climate change are creating a hazardous and sometimes fatal obstacle course for the marine species.

Protecting Blue Corridors, released by WWF, has for the first time, visualised the satellite tracks of 845 migratory whales worldwide. The report outlines how whales are encountering multiple and growing threats in their critical ocean habitats – areas where they feed, mate, give birth, and nurse their young – and along their migration superhighways, or ‘blue corridors’. The report is a collaborative analysis of 30 years of scientific data contributed by more than 50 research groups, with leading marine scientists from Oregon State University, the University of California Santa Cruz, the University of Southampton and others. Protecting Blue Corridors: Challenges and solutions for migratory whales navigating national and international seas  was published ahead of World Whale Day on 20 February. Further coverage can be found here and here. The full WWF report is available here.

There was also coverage of a call reroute major shipping lanes to protect blue whales. A unique colony of blue whales increasingly at risk from tankers and container ships, say marine campaigners. Scientists and conservation groups are calling for one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes to be rerouted in an effort to protect the world’s largest animal.

Since 2008, researchers have been painstakingly piecing together clues about a little-known, endangered population of blue whales that live off the southern tip of Sri Lanka. What they have discovered so far hints at one group of cetaceans or even a sub-species. Rather than migrating vast distances like most blue whales, the Sri Lankan population is thought to live in the region year-round, grazing on tiny shrimps and communicating via distinctive vocalisations. The whales’ habitat overlaps with a major shipping artery that connects east Asia to the Suez Canal, leaving them vulnerable to ship strikes and noise pollution. On an average day the whales face off against a relentless barrage of about 200 ships, many of them container ships or oil tankers that stretch up to 300 metres in length.

While we’re on marine mammal stories: last week we covered how some conservationists are up in arms over the UK’s decision to sign a new deal with the Faroe Islands following a record mass dolphin slaughter. It has now been reported that the Faroe Islands has begun a review of the controversial dolphin hunt. Also, here is a story asking: ‘Can the Vaquita, the World’s Smallest Marine Mammal, Be Saved From Extinction?’