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
Icelandic hunting vessels in port

Whaling boat kept in port after more hunt cruelty exposed

Icelandic whale hunting fleet One of the whaling boats involved in the latest hunts in...
Commerson's dolphin

New Important Marine Mammal Areas added to global ocean conservation list

Commerson's dolphin Experts from a number of countries have mapped out a new set of...
Image showing two harpoon wounds in fin whale

Whalers kill just days after Iceland’s hunt suspension is lifted

Whalers in Iceland have claimed their first victims since the lifting (just a few days...
Fin whale

Icelandic government lifts suspension on cruel hunts

The Icelandic government is to allow fin whales to be hunted again after lifting a...

New research identifies three Antarctic blue whale populations

Researchers from Australia have identified three surviving populations of Antarctic blue whales, the largest creatures to have inhabited the earth.

Commercial whaling in the 20th century reduced the number of these whales from nearly a quarter of a million to an estimated population of just 360 whales when whaling ended in 1972/73. Recent estimates have put the population at around 2280, leaving it criticically endangered.

Surveys initiated by the International Whaling Commision saw teams from Flinders and Sydney universities carry out research on the whales in their summer feeding grounds in Antarctica. Even though they share feeding grounds, they then migrate to different breeding grounds during the austral winter.

Further research is needed to discover the numbers of each population and their migration routes to their breeding grounds.

The full report can be found at www.nature.com

Towards population-level conservation in the critically endangered Antarctic blue whale: the number and distribution of their populations
Catherine R. M. Attard, Luciano B. Beheregaray & Luciana M. Möller

About George Berry

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