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North Atlantic right whale

Success! Court stops US government attempt to block whale protection lawsuit

WDC seeks further ‘school zone’ speed protection from ships for endangered North Atlantic right whales

Conservation groups including WDC have filed a rule-making petition in the US today seeking additional speed limits for ships along the Atlantic coast to protect critically endangered North Atlantic right whales. The move follows another tragedy for this fragile population of whales, which now only numbers around 400 individuals. In June, a baby right whale…

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Cruise ship docks with dead whale on bow

A cruise ship carrying thousands of passengers has arrived at an Alaskan port carrying the carcass of a 6m long humpback whale on its bow. The Grand Princess, a 290 metre ship pulled into Ketchikan with the whale attached to a submerge part of the bow designed to avoid wave-making. It is not known if the…

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Two whales washed up on UK shores may have been hit by ships

Two whales have been washed up on UK beaches within hours of each other, both believed to have been hit by passing ships. The first incident was reported in Scotland, when a minke whale, thought to have been killed by a boat propeller, came ashore on Easter Ross beach. The whale, which was more than…

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Just A Whale? I don’t think so.

Here in WDC’s North American office we always laugh when someone asks us what a typical day is like. The reason we laugh is because on any given day anything can come up, and last week was a perfect example of that.  We got a call from the harbormaster here in Plymouth on Wednesday about…

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Are whale watching boats the greatest collision threat to whales?

“Revealed: whale-watching boats the greatest collision threat to whales” — this big hype headline sadly comes from The Guardian which is normally more careful about reporting. Their subhead is no better: “Guardian Australia analysis of International Whaling Commission data shows motor yachts, naval vessels and ferries come close behind.” In fact, this database that the journalists…

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