WHALES AHOY - NANO DAILY

Iceland grants whaling license for 2024 season

Jun 11, 2024 (AFP)

Iceland, Norway and Japan are the only three countries that allow commercial whaling despite fierce opposition from animal rights activists. In January, Hvalur,...

Exploring the mysterious alphabet of sperm whales

May 08, 2024 (SPX)

Now, thanks to machine learning, we're a little closer to understanding these gentle giants. Researchers from the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligen...

New Zealand's Maori King calls for whales to be given personhood

Mar 28, 2024 (AFP)

Kiingi Tuheitia Potatau te Wherowhero VII said that majestic marine mammals should be given inherent human rights, such as having a healthy environment, to allo...

Orca exposed as oceanic killers hunting in organised pods

Mar 21, 2024 (SPX)

These marine giants, renowned for their presence in global oceans, exhibit varied behaviors across different populations or 'ecotypes,' each with unique social ...

Remains of extinct giant river dolphin found in Amazon region

Mar 20, 2024 (UPI)

The newly discovered species is named Pebanista yacuruna after a mythical group of aquatic people thought by some to have inhabited the Amazon basin long ago. "...

Whale of a tail: Scientists track unique humpback 'fingerprint'

Mar 15, 2024 (AFP)

Andrea Bonilla, a Colombian scientist at Cornell University in the United States, has been working with a team of researchers since 2014 to catalog humpback wha...

Orcas demonstrating they no longer need to hunt in packs to take down the great white shark

Mar 04, 2024 (SPX)

"The astonishing predation, off the coast of Mossel Bay, South Africa, represents unprecedented behavior underscoring the exceptional proficiency of the killer ...

Heatwaves may be driving whale decline in Pacific: study

Feb 28, 2024 (AFP)

Thanks to conservation efforts and the end of commercial whaling in 1976, the region's humpback population steadily increased until 2012. But over the last deca...

Whales 'cannot out-sing' human noise pollution

Feb 21, 2024 (AFP)

Complex whale melodies, first recorded some 50 years ago, are known to play a key role in the social and reproductive communication of these massive marine mamm...

French navy enforces fishing ban to protect dolphins

Feb 08, 2024 (AFP)

His mission? Making sure that a month-long commercial fishing ban imposed to protect dolphins is respected. The French government said last month it would ban m...

Crowd gathers on New Zealand beach after stranded whale dies

Jan 29, 2024 (AFP)

The seven-metre (23-foot) fin whale died in the early hours after beaching on an estuary sandbank near the Christchurch suburb of Moncks Bay, the conservation d...

Sperm whale dies after rare foray into shallow Australian waters

Dec 13, 2023 (AFP)

Curious swimmers paddled out to stroke the 30-tonne mammal after it was spotted close to shore south of state capital Perth over the weekend. But wildlife offic...

Dominica to create world's first sperm whale reserve

Nov 13, 2023 (AFP)

The Caribbean nation said it hoped the new protected zone of 300 square miles (nearly 800 square kilometers) off its western coast -- roughly the size of the is...

Speeding boats risk killing off North Atlantic right whales: study

Oct 19, 2023 (AFP)

That's according to a new analysis of vessel tracking data published Thursday by the nonprofit Oceana, which called for stronger safeguards and greater enforcem...

An endangered whale species is speeding towards extinction

Oct 19, 2023 (AFP)

American conservationists are hoping a proposed federal rule change to expand speed restrictions for vessels along the US East Coast will save the marine giants...

10% of dolphins killed as Amazon drought hits lake: study

Oct 17, 2023 (AFP)

Emergency teams found 153 dolphins dead in the last week of September in Lake Tefe, where water temperatures reached 39.1 degrees Celsius, more than seven degre...

Gray whales experience major population swings as a result of Arctic conditions, research shows

Oct 16, 2023 (SPX)

During each of these die-offs, including one that began in 2019 and is ongoing, the gray whale population was reduced by up to 25% over just a few years, said J...

Inuit hunters blame cruise ships as narwhal disappear

Oct 04, 2023 (AFP)

So much so that the Indigenous hunters of the Scoresby Sound in eastern Greenland forbid their children from throwing pebbles into the water lest they spook the...

Govt suspends Icelandic whaler over animal welfare

Sep 14, 2023 (AFP)

The decision came just a week after the hunting of whales resumed following the government's decision to authorise the controversial practice, but under stricte...

Iceland whalers kill first fin whales of season

Sep 07, 2023 (AFP)

Two vessels belonging to Hvalur, the only company still hunting whales in Iceland, each harpooned a fin whale on Thursday and were due back in port early Friday...