Entanglement is the biggest identified cause of death due to human activity for minke and humpback whales, and the extent of the issue has not been well understood. Whales and other marine animals can become entangled in fishing equipment, including the ropes linking creels (also known as pots), which are set around Scotland’s coasts to […]
While many efforts to fight climate change have focused on planting trees or restoring wetlands, researchers publishing in Trends in Ecology and Evolution advocate for the importance of understanding the carbon sequestration potential of the planet’s largest animals—whales. In their paper, the researchers explore how whales can influence the amount of carbon in our air and waters […]
A new study released which focusses on the scale of Marine Protected Areas (MPAs) needed to protect large mobile marine animals. MPAs, particularly large MPAs, are increasing in number and size around the globe in part to facilitate the conservation of marine megafauna under the assumption that large-scale MPAs better align with vagile life histories; […]
It was ‘World Whale Day’ on 20th 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 […]
What will the next fifty years bring for whale populations? Wildlife & Countryside Link ‘As COP26 concluded this month, another environmental international gathering celebrated a major anniversary – the International Whaling Commission (IWC) turned 75. Established in 1946, the IWC secured global agreement to a commercial whaling moratorium in 1982 which it now works to […]
Canadian researchers have found find that the population of bowhead whales which overwinters in the Amundsen Gulf and Eastern Beaufort Sea did not make the 6,000km round trip in 2018-2019. Click here. Bowheads are the only baleen whale endemic to the Arctic. They live near the polar ice edge for much of the year and […]
North Atlantic right whales gave birth over the winter in greater numbers than have seen since 2015, an encouraging sign for researchers who became alarmed three years ago when the critically endangered species produced no known offspring at all. It’s qualified good news though since right whales are still dying — largely from manmade causes — at […]
Whales & Whaling – Japan fails to overturn whaling ban at IWC meeting An attempt to overturn the decades-old global ban on commercial whaling has failed, to the relief of conservationists. Anti-whaling nations defeated by a decisive margin proposals from the Japanese government that would have allowed for the return of whale hunts. The vote, on the […]