18 Nov 2025
Photo by Soren Funk Scientists have analysed 10,000 marine animal autopsies to understand how plastic ingestion leads to death, revealing the surprisingly small amounts needed to kill wildlife. The study found seabirds face extreme risk after swallowing just 23 pieces of plastic, giving them a 90% chance of dying. Marine mammals reach similar danger at 29 pieces, whilst […]
18 Nov 2025
Photo by Anchor Lee Bird flu has caused a 47% decline in breeding female southern elephant seals at South Georgia, wiping out around 53,000 individuals at the world’s largest colony of the species, scientists have warned. The remote sub-Antarctic island is home to 54% of the global breeding population of southern elephant seals, with […]
13 Aug 2024
In a recently published paper titled ‘Narwhal, beluga and bowhead whale responses to marine vessel traffic: A systematic map’ researchers looked at interactions between increases in marine vessel traffic and how Arctic whales respond to marine vessels and vessel-associated activities. Exposure to human activity Arctic whales (bowhead, narwhal, and beluga) have historically been shielded from […]
06 Nov 2023
The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (EFRA) Committee has published the UK Government’s response to its report, Protecting Marine Mammals in the UK and Abroad. The report, published in June, recommended stronger measures to tackle the problem of bycatch by introducing mandatory bycatch monitoring and called on DEFRA to publish an action plan to achieve […]
29 Aug 2023
Marine mammals mistakenly eat plastic debris items such as plastic bags, food wrappers, ropes and abandoned fishing gear, or they become entangled in plastic items including fishing nets. Both scenarios can lead to injury and, in many cases, death. Now a recent US study has revealed that marine mammals face a more subtle plastic threat: microplastics. In the ocean, microplastics […]
06 Jun 2023
Natural Resources Wales (NRW), the Centre for Environment, Fisheries and Aquaculture Science and Bangor University have placed specialist recording equipment at three locations in the North Anglesey Special Area of Conservation to learn if human made and natural noise affects marine mammals. As part of the Welsh Acoustic Marine Mammal Survey, recordings will be made […]
04 Apr 2023
Mexico has acknowledged that it faces sanctions from the international wildlife body CITES for not doing enough to protect the vaquita marina, a small porpoise that is the world’s most endangered marine mammal. The sanctions have not yet been announced, but they could make it difficult for Mexico to export some regulated animal and plant products like […]
24 May 2022
Whales, dolphins and porpoises are a group of marine mammals collectively known as cetaceans. During the 19th and 20th centuries many types due to over-hunting, many cetacean populations had collapsed. A moratorium on commercial hunting of whales was introduced in 1986 by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in late 1986. The IWC was set up […]
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