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
Bottlenose dolphins breaching

Landmark report reveals UK wildlife’s devastating decline

With whales and dolphins already facing many threats, a landmark report released this week reveals...
Dolphins with oil rig

Go ahead for new UK oil and gas exploration threatens whales and dolphins

Permission has been granted for the development of the UK's biggest untapped oilfield off Shetland,...
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...

New findings highlight decline in North Atlantic right whale population

The past five years have seen the population of North Atlantic right whales fall from 482 in 2010 to 458 in 2015 according to a new model used to estimate their numbers. Over the preceding twenty years the findings revealed the population had increased from around 270 whales in 1990 at a rate of just under 3%.

Researchers from the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the New England Aquarium developed the model, which also reveals that the number of adult females has fallen from 200 to 186 during the same time.

2017 has been a particularly bad year with 14 known deaths so far. Collisions with boat traffic and entanglement in fishing gear are major threats to the slow-moving whales which live off the east coast of the US and Canada. 

State–space mark–recapture estimates reveal a recent decline in abundance of North Atlantic right whales
Richard M. Pace III, Peter J. Corkeron, Scott D. Kraus
Ecology and Evolution Sept 2017

About George Berry

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