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

Trade sanctions announced after Mexico fails to protect near extinct porpoise

The international body behind the treaty that protects endangered plants and animals from the threats...

WDC exposes failure of Government scheme to protect whales and dolphins from net deaths

Following our investigations, we have revealed that a UK Government scheme to protect whales and...

First cases of bird flu in dolphins discovered in the UK

The UK Government has announced that two dolphins and a harbour porpoise have died from...
Kiska the orca

Kiska the ‘world’s loneliest whale’ dies at Canadian theme park

Kiska, dubbed the loneliest whale in the world, has died at Marineland, a zoo and...

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.