Skip to content
All articles
  • All articles
  • About whales & dolphins
  • Create healthy seas
  • End captivity
  • Fundraising
  • Green Whale
  • Kids blogs
  • Prevent deaths in nets
  • Scottish Dolphin Centre
  • Stop whaling
Dolphin in Brazil helping with fishing illustration

Dolphins and fishermen working together

Kidzone - quick links Fun Facts Curious kids Blogs Fantastic fundraisers Gallery Splish and Splash...
Gray whale (eschrichtius robustus) Gray whale in Ojo de liebre lagoon Baja California.

Why we’re walking for whales to save the world

We've got enormous ambitions when it comes to fighting climate breakdown, and so two members...
Dolphins with keepers in the new Windsor Safari Park. Image: PA Images/Alamy Stock Photo

Three decades on from UK’s last dolphin show, what needs to change?

The UK hasn't had captive whales and dolphins on display for 30 years, but it's...
Fishers' involvement is crucial. Image: WDC/JTF

When porpoises and people overlap

We're funding a project in Hong Kong that's working with fishing communities to help save...
Whale evolution cover

How did whales end up living in the ocean?

Kidzone - quick links Fun Facts Curious kids Blogs Fantastic fundraisers Gallery Splish and Splash...
Fishers chatting

Scottish fishers working with us to reduce risks to whales

Small changes to fishing gear could make a big difference to whales around Scotland, and...

Mindful conservation – why we need a new respect for nature

'We should look at whales and dolphins as the indigenous people of the seas -...
tins of whale meat

How Japan’s whaling industry is trying to convince people to eat whales

Japan's hunters kill hundreds of whales every year despite the fact that hardly anyone in...

A Return of the Rights?

Harpooned almost into extinction in the mid-1800s, critically endangered and extremely rare, the North Pacific right whale is one whale that most researchers accept they might never see. There are only between 38 and 50 North Pacific right whales left in the eastern part of the Pacific Ocean and no more than a few hundred in the world. Seeing one has been described as “winning the marine mammal lottery”, which is exactly what researcher John Ford and colleagues have just done last week off the coast of British Colombia, Canada, when they came across a lone individual North Pacific right whale whilst on survey.

Hunting of the North Pacific right whale has been banned since 1935 but illegal hunting continued into the 1960s. Although no longer an issue facing these majestic animals, they are at risk from collisions with ships and incidental entanglement in fishing gear.

 “It was a thrilling experience … We would never have imagined that we would be able to see one and it was not only exciting personally … but it was wonderful for us to be able to confirm that this species still exists,” said Ford.

The last time one of the majestic mammals was seen off the coast of B.C. was in 1951 (62 years ago).

About Nicola Hodgins

Policy Manager at WDC