Skip to content
All news
  • All news
  • About whales & dolphins
  • Corporates
  • Create healthy seas
  • End captivity
  • Green Whale
  • Prevent deaths in nets
  • Scottish Dolphin Centre
  • Stop whaling
  • Stranding
  • Whale watching
WDC joins local protesters on anti whaling march in Iceland

Pressure mounts in Iceland as latest survey shows majority of local people want whale hunting to end

WDC joins local protesters on anti whaling march in Iceland For the first time, those...

New government marine wildlife code to help reduce dolphin disturbance

The launch today by UK Government of new guidance on how to act responsibly around...

UK government to extend ivory ban to stop the sale of orca teeth

Following the UK ban on the import, export and dealing of elephant ivory in 2022,...

Dead whale beauty products to be sold in Japanese vending machine stores

Antarctic minke whale alongside Japanese whaling ship. Photo © Jeremy Sutton-Hibbert Japanese whale hunting company,...

Research suggests up to three million whales were slaughtered in last century

Researchers in the US have released a study that estimates the number of whales killed by industrial hunting in the last century is close to three million. 

This global slaughter is thought to be the largest cull of any creature (total biomass) in human history.

The devastation is still being felt today. Some estimates indicate that the number of sperm whales is down to one-third of their pre-whaling population, and that blue whales have been depleted by up to 90%. Some species populations have begun to recover, but others  – including the North Atlantic right whale (above) – are now staring extinction in the face. 

The researchers could not put an accurate figure on the true scale of the slaughter because they could not trust some of the information provided by the whalers regarding the numbers of whales they killed.  

Find out more about the history of whaling.

About George Berry

George is a member of WDC's Communications team and website coordinator.