1986 whales. Medical search. Frequent questions

2016 marks the 70th anniversary of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW) as well as the 30th anniversary of the International Whaling Commission's (IWC) moratorium on commercial whaling. (frontiersin.org)
Its strategy to circumvent the moratorium by issuing permits to kill protected whales for scientific research is famous-even the subject of a 2014 lawsuit at the International Court of Justice. (frontiersin.org)
This is a perspective on Japan's evolving STCW strategy and the risk that lifting, or modifying, the moratorium would pose to the conservation of whales. (frontiersin.org)
It says the whaling will be for research, which is allowed despite the present moratorium on commercial whaling. (bbc.co.uk)
Whaling is regulated by the International Whaling Commission (IWC), which in 1986 adopted a moratorium on all commercial whaling. (bbc.co.uk)
The International Whaling Commission (IWC) issued a moratorium on commercial whaling in 1986. (howstuffworks.com)
There has been a global moratorium on commercial whaling since 1986. (hsi.org.au)
Japan has circumvented the moratorium on commercial whaling, established in 1986, by pretending their ongoing whaling is for scientific purposes. (hsi.org.au)
The IWC, an inter-governmental organization founded in 1946 focused on whale conservation and management of the whaling industry, adopted a moratorium on hunting whales in 1982. (mongabay.com)
The moratorium allows for IWC member nations to issue whaling permits for scientific research purposes. (mongabay.com)
Japan has openly flouted the moratorium by issuing such permits and selling the harvested whale meat ever since the moratorium took effect in 1986. (mongabay.com)
Japan has been frequently criticised for conducting annual whaling missions, which it says does not violate a 1986 international moratorium on hunting as it is conducting research. (abc.net.au)
It is the fourth year in succession that the country has defied the international moratorium on whale hunting. (newscientist.com)
But these moral objections may well be the straw that breaks the back of the International Whaling Commission-the body which regulates whaling and imposed the moratorium. (newscientist.com)
Britain had always said it would not contemplate voting to end the moratorium on commercial whaling without assurances about healthy whale stocks, humane killing methods and fully effective procedures for monitoring a commercial hunt. (newscientist.com)
So as well as imposing a moratorium from 1986, the IWC asked its panel of scientific experts to come up with a way of calculating safe catch limits for various whale species. (newscientist.com)
The hunting of fin whales, which can reach lengths of more than 20 metres (65.6 feet), was resumed in Iceland in 2006 following a 1986 moratorium. (aljazeera.com)
After forty years of stumbling toward disaster, with inevitable extinctions drawing near and world opinion growing loud in their ears, the IWC had no choice but to enact a global moratorium on commercial whaling, which went into effect in 1986. (commondreams.org)
The Obama administration is now preparing to endorse lifting that moratorium and push for a return to legalized commercial whaling when the IWC meets in June. (commondreams.org)
We sympathize with fishermen's complaints that with the global moratorium on whaling in place since 1986, a growing number of whales have been depleting fish stocks off the Korean Peninsula. (koreatimes.co.kr)
U.S. State Department spokesman Patrick Ventrell was quoted as saying that Washington remained committed to the moratorium on commercial whaling, noting, ``We're concerned about South Korea's announcement that it will begin a lethal scientific research whaling program, and we plan to discuss this with the South Korean government. (koreatimes.co.kr)

Less well known is Japan's strategy to overturn the ban by persuading the Commission to authorize a category of commercial whaling known as Small Type Coastal Whaling (STCW) that is conducted on minke and other small whales in Japanese waters but has never been regulated, or even formally recognized, by the IWC. (frontiersin.org)
Japan's scientific whaling programme killed almost 700 whales of several species in the Antarctic and north Pacific in 2002. (bbc.co.uk)
Why is there not more outrage about Japan's barbaric practice of whaling? (telegraph.co.uk)
TOKYO - Japan's whaling fleet returned home Friday after killing 333 whales in the Antarctic, achieving its goal for the second year under a revised research whaling program. (inquirer.net)
The International Court of Justice ruled in 2014 that Japan's Antarctic whaling program should stop because it wasn't scientific as Tokyo had claimed. (inquirer.net)
Critics say it's a dying industry, but Japan's government has spent large amounts of tax money to sustain the whaling operations, saying it's a Japanese cultural tradition that must be preserved. (inquirer.net)
The Fisheries Agency said Friday that Japan's five-ship fleet killed 333 minke whales during the four-month expedition. (10news.com)
Japan's controversial Institute for Cetacean Research (ICR) operates under these IWC guidelines and catches whales each year. (howstuffworks.com)
However, in 2014 the International Court of Justice (ICJ) handed down its judgment in a case brought by Australia which said that Japan's scientific whale hunt in Antarctica was illegal and ordered it to stop. (hsi.org.au)
Humane Society International has long fought the battle with Japanese whalers on a legal front, and we are the key non-government force in Australia that has ensured that Japan's actions of killing whales in Australia's whale sanctuary in the Southern Ocean has not gone unchallenged. (hsi.org.au)
In 2008 we secured a ruling in the Federal Court of Australia that Japan's Antarctic hunt is a breach of Australian law because it regularly takes place within Australia's claimed territorial waters which are part of the Australian Whale Sanctuary. (hsi.org.au)
Attorney General George Brandis condemned Japan's whaling intentions when questioned on Japan's new law in the Australian parliament in June. (hsi.org.au)
The NYT also reported that Yoshihide Suga, Japan's chief cabinet secretary, said that his country is leaving the IWC because the organization has failed to develop a sustainable whaling industry and was instead too focused on conservation. (mongabay.com)
Environmentalists were quick to blast Japan's announcement that it would resume commercial whaling. (mongabay.com)
Japan's failing appetite for whale meat left three-quarters of meat from whales caught in the northwest Pacific last summer unsold, according to a report. (motherjones.com)
Junko Sakuma, a freelance journalist, said the body responsible for selling meat from Japan's controversial "scientific" whaling program had failed to sell 908 metric tons of the 1,211-metric-ton catch, despite holding 13 public auctions since last October. (motherjones.com)
Sakuma said the oversupply of whale meat, despite pockets of demand for the highest quality produce, had made Japan's lethal research program unsustainable. (motherjones.com)
Sakuma's report will come as another blow to Japan's beleaguered whaling industry. (motherjones.com)

Common minke ( Balaenoptera acutorostrata , hereafter referred to as minke whale), sei ( B. borealis ) and Bryde's ( B. edeni ) whales are commonly found balaenopterid species and were harvested during the commercial whaling period. (nafo.int)
The minister wrote it was "undisputed" that whale hunting had not had much economic significance to Iceland in recent years, with no big whale caught in the last three years, except for one minke whale in 2021. (cnn.com)
A minke whale breaching. (mongabay.com)
Investigating "the dynamics of the widely distributed krill population is quite difficult, so that monitoring energy storage by a krill consumer, such as the minke whale, can be most useful," say the authors. (abc.net.au)

Japan conducted non-lethal whaling research in the Antarctic in 2015, and revised its program in 2016 by reducing the catch quota to about one-third of what it used to kill. (inquirer.net)
Japanese whaling fleet has returned with 333 whales it caught in the Antarctic, filling its planned quota for a second straight year under a revised program following an international court ruling. (10news.com)
Japanese whalers and radical anti-whaling activists trying to stop the hunters from pulling one of their kills out of the Antarctic Ocean collided Friday in an incident Tokyo condemned as "appalling and unforgivable. (nbcnews.com)
The protesters set off from Australia in early December for the remote and icy Antarctic Ocean, chasing the whaling fleet for about 2,000 miles before stopping two weeks ago in Tasmania to refuel. (nbcnews.com)
In announcing its exit from the IWC, Japan said it will stop hunting whales in the Antarctic and restrict whaling activities to its own waters in the North Pacific starting in July 2019. (mongabay.com)
Although the International Whaling Commission banned commercial whaling in 1986, Japan is allowed to conduct so-called "scientific" hunts in the northwest Pacific and the Antarctic. (motherjones.com)
Campaigners claimed a major victory when the Antarctic whaling fleet returned to port in March with just 30 percent of its planned catch of more than 900 whales. (motherjones.com)
According to the study, Antarctic minke whales have shed on average 9% of their blubber during the past 18 years, corresponding to an annual weight loss of 17 kilograms. (abc.net.au)
Minke whales swim to the Antarctic every summer to feed, and to warm waters during the winter to breed. (abc.net.au)

Targeted on an industrial scale for their oil and, more recently, for their meat, many of the 13 species of "great" whales (baleen whales plus the sperm whale) suffered catastrophic declines. (frontiersin.org)
Perhaps that answer questions such as, "How well does whale meat sell? (giantrobot.com)
Its whale catch has fallen in recent years in part because of declining domestic demand for whale meat. (inquirer.net)
Japan has been the largest buyer of [Icelandic] whale meat, but its consumption is declining year by year. (cnn.com)
Earlier in the day, Watson said, the Japanese hurled pieces of blubber and whale meat at his ship. (nbcnews.com)
A new report reveals that three-quarters of the meat from whales caught last summer did not get sold. (motherjones.com)
The report , published on the website of the Tokyo-based Dolphin and Whale Action Network, said the Institute of Cetacean Research, a quasi-governmental body that oversees the hunts, had hoped to use sales from the meat to cover the costs of the whaling fleet's expeditions. (motherjones.com)
The failure of the auctions to pique consumer interest in meat from minke, Bryde's, and sei whales has forced the institute to revert to private sales through Kyodo Senpaku, the for-profit firm that collects, processes, and sells the meat on behalf of the institute. (motherjones.com)
But campaigns to revive the tradition of eating whale meat-which was largely confined to a few coastal towns-have failed to capture the public's imagination. (motherjones.com)
A 2006 survey by the Nippon Research Centre found that 95 percent of Japanese people never or rarely eat whale meat. (motherjones.com)
Consumption of whale meat rose after the Second World War as it provided a much-needed source of protein. (motherjones.com)
Most of the whale meat reportedly is sold to markets and restaurants. (newsreview.com)
But catches have gone down drastically in recent years because of a dwindling market for whale meat. (aljazeera.com)
Japan, by far the biggest market for whale meat, resumed commercial whaling in 2019 after a three-decade hiatus, drastically reducing the need for imports from Iceland. (aljazeera.com)
Korea is seen to be following in the footstep of Japan, which has been under fire for hunting whales in the name of research although the meat from the hunted whales mostly ends up in restaurants, stores and school lunches. (koreatimes.co.kr)
Although Korea outlaws whaling for commercial purposes, it's well known that there are markets for whale meat in Ulsan and nearby cities, mostly from minke whales that get caught in fishing nets ``by accident'' or wash ashore. (koreatimes.co.kr)
At the same time, more than 100 whales are caught every year through illegal hunting to provide whale meat for about 40 restaurants in Ulsan. (koreatimes.co.kr)

The two extant species are the long-finned pilot whale (G. melas) and the short-finned pilot whale (G. macrorhynchus). (wikipedia.org)
Between the two species, they range nearly worldwide, with long-finned pilot whales living in colder waters and short-finned pilot whales living in tropical and subtropical waters. (wikipedia.org)
Short-finned pilot whales are one of the few mammal species in which females go through menopause, and postreproductive females continue to contribute to their pod. (wikipedia.org)
Long-finned and short-finned pilot whales are so similar, it is difficult to tell the two species apart. (wikipedia.org)
Studies of whales in the Atlantic showed much overlap in these characteristics between the species, making them clines instead of distinctive features. (wikipedia.org)
The size and weight depend on the species, as long-finned pilot whales are generally larger than short-finned pilot whales. (wikipedia.org)
The IWC began to protect the most vulnerable species in 1966 but did not adopt a total ban on commercial whaling until 1982. (frontiersin.org)
Most of the great whales are protected under the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (Cites). (bbc.co.uk)
But when Iceland joined Cites in 2000, it refused to be bound by bans on trade in products from several species, including the very rare blue whale. (bbc.co.uk)
The humpbacks in eastern Australia have rebounded close to pre-whaling levels and have even been taken off of the threatened species list . (popsci.com)
Yes, the populations of some species have strengthened, and yes, it is certainly correct that some whales are more numerous than others. (telegraph.co.uk)
Thanks to that chemical, you'll find chemoautotrophic organisms, such as related mussel species, in these areas similar to those found living at whale falls [source: Smith and Baco]. (howstuffworks.com)
Illustrating the unique environment created from whale falls, two new species of worms were identified on a whale carcass. (howstuffworks.com)
Stomach contents analysis showed that the three whale species are highly dependent on small pelagic fish, i.e . (nafo.int)
Pianka's niche overlap index showed high diet overlap among whale species that occur in some areas where they feed on pelagic fish. (nafo.int)
The North Atlantic right whale is one of the rarest whale species in the world but can often be seen right in our backyard. (neaq.org)
With fewer than 350 whales remaining , New England Aquarium researchers are working tirelessly to study and protect this critically endangered species from threats like vessel strikes and entanglement in fishing gear. (neaq.org)
Explore our comprehensive right whale FAQs to learn more about this critically endangered species. (neaq.org)
Aquarium science and policy staffers partnered with lawmakers to create legislation that bolsters parts of the local economy that rely on the ocean and waterways-while also protecting critical species, like right whales, and their habitats. (neaq.org)
In addition to our right whale research, the Aquarium's dedicated research arm, the Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life studies a variety of other whale species to determine how humans and climate change are impacting their populations and habitats. (neaq.org)
Fin whales are classed as a vulnerable species on The International Union for Conservation of Nature's (IUCN) Red List of Threatened Species, while sei whales are categorized as an endangered. (cnn.com)
It found that the oceans are facing a shortfall of krill, a vital component of the food chain, due to climate change and the recovery of species such as humpback whales. (abc.net.au)
Results show that both vessel strikes and entanglement of these whales need to be considerably reduced for the species to continue to exist. (eastbayri.com)
NOAA and longstanding whale conservation groups concur that reducing entanglement and vessel strikes are paramount to preserve the species, and offshore wind surveys and development are not contributing to mortality, as suggested by some. (eastbayri.com)
When the 40-odd member countries of the IWC decided to ban commercial whaling more than a decade ago, they agreed that many species of whales had been dangerously depleted from years of unchecked hunting and that stocks needed time to recover. (newscientist.com)
Some species of whales, including the northern right and the blue, have still not recovered. (newscientist.com)
So rare is the species that when a pair of dead whales washed up on a New Zealand beach in late 2010, scientists didn't even know what they had. (cnn.com)
The results were stunning because only three partial specimens of the species were known to exist - two collected in New Zealand in 1872 and in the 1950s and a third found on Robinson Crusoe Island off the coast of Chile in 1986. (cnn.com)
This is the species of whale that we know the least about in the world," Constantine said. (cnn.com)
Annual quotas authorise the killing of 209 fin whales - the second-longest marine mammal after the blue whale - and 217 minke whales, one of the smallest species. (aljazeera.com)
Twenty years after the fact, the discovery of the staggering scale of the Soviets' cheating nullified the data scientists had been using to estimate the populations of virtually every species of great whale. (commondreams.org)
Migration ecology, including migratory destinations, movements and site fidelity for humpback whales (Megaptera novaeangliae) remain poorly studied in parts of the range of the Central America population, considered endangered under the United States Endangered Species Act. (bvsalud.org)

Before 2010, no one had ever seen the spade-toothed beaked whale in the flesh, let alone alive. (grist.org)
The male spade-toothed beaked whale that washed up on a New Zealand beach in 2010. (cnn.com)
Almost a thing of legend, scientists have never seen a spade-toothed beaked whale alive and, until recently, only had limited skeletal evidence they existed. (cnn.com)
We re-ran the sample again to make sure, even though the DNA clearly showed it was a spade-toothed beaked whale. (cnn.com)
The spade-toothed beaked whale looks similar to a large black, white and gray dolphin with its long pointed snout. (cnn.com)

The International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW) ( IWC, 1946a ) was negotiated at the end of World War II by the leading whaling nations (with the exception of Japan which joined in 1951) in an attempt to bring order to the extreme competition that had long characterized commercial whaling. (frontiersin.org)
Specifically, it agreed a new schedule paragraph 10(e) which set catch limits " for the killing for commercial purposes of whales from all stocks " to zero after a 4 year phase-in period ( IWC, 1982 ). (frontiersin.org)
Around the same time its Scientific Committee began developing a more precautionary quota-setting model for future commercial whaling that would set all catch limits to zero by default until scientific evidence showed that sustainable catch limits could be set for a specific population. (frontiersin.org)
Japan also catches whales in the name of science, and only Norway kills them for straightforward commercial purposes. (bbc.co.uk)
Conservationists say they think Iceland's plans amount to a thinly-veiled decision to resume commercial whaling. (bbc.co.uk)
Iceland says it will not resume commercial whaling before 2006, and then only on the basis of sound science and effective management. (bbc.co.uk)
Vassili Papastavrou, an Ifaw whale biologist, told BBC News Online: "This is commercial whaling in a threadbare disguise. (bbc.co.uk)
They have been able to survive and thrive primarily due to commercial whaling largely stopping in 1986 . (popsci.com)
Research whaling is allowed as an exception to a 1986 international ban on commercial whaling. (inquirer.net)
Opponents of the Japanese program say it's a cover for commercial whaling because the whales are sold for food. (inquirer.net)
We will steadily continue our research toward a resumption of commercial whaling," Fisheries Agency official Shigeto Hase said at a welcome ceremony in Shimonoseki, home port for the fleet's mother ship, Nisshin Maru. (inquirer.net)
This week, Japan passed a bill in its Parliament which seeks to lock in their commercial whaling ambitions. (hsi.org.au)
Whilst Japan has been continuing with its whaling year on year, under the pretext that it is a scientific endeavour, this bill blatantly admits what we have always known, that this is being done in order to resume commercial whaling. (hsi.org.au)
The Australian public fully expects our Government to be an unwavering opponent of commercial whaling and to continue roundly and vocally condemning all commercial whaling wherever it takes place and under whatever guise. (hsi.org.au)
With an Act like this being passed in the Japanese Parliament, it's the whole world's responsibility to remind Japan that it fully intends for commercial whaling to remain forever unlawful under international law. (hsi.org.au)
The country broke a global ban on commercial whaling, killing the fin whale for the first time since the 1980s. (cnn.com)
After a 30-year ban, Japan resumed commercial whaling in its waters in 2019. (cnn.com)
Commercial whaling was banned in a 1986 International Whaling Commission embargo, but Japan withdrew from the IWC in December 2018, marking their return to whaling by harpooning two minke whales . (cnn.com)
Iceland resumed commercial whaling in October 2006 in a move "furiously disputed by many countries angry at what they regarded as Iceland's attempt to bypass international regulations," according to Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC), a non-profit organization. (cnn.com)
Under International Whaling Commission rules, the mammals may be killed for research but not for commercial purposes. (nbcnews.com)
Opponents say the Japanese research expeditions are simply a cover for commercial whaling, which was banned in 1986. (nbcnews.com)
The government of Japan confirmed today that it is withdrawing from the International Whaling Commission (IWC) and will resume commercial whaling operations in the North Pacific. (mongabay.com)
For decades Japan has aggressively pursued a well-funded whaling campaign to upend the global ban on commercial whaling. (mongabay.com)
Japan has resumed commercial whaling, bringing back to port the country's first official catch since it withdrew from the International Whaling Commission, a global organization committed to the conservation of whales. (vegofwa.org)
Research whaling is just commercial whaling under another name," says John Hocevar, oceans specialist for environmental group Greenpeace. (abc.net.au)
Equally if the whaling nations are not allowed to resume regulated, commercial hunts, they could decide to leave the IWC. (newscientist.com)
Many IWC member nations are now coming to accept that limited commercial whaling would not threaten the survival of the more abundant whales. (newscientist.com)
Britain is finally admitting that it will oppose the resumption of commercial whaling whatever the IWC's scientists say. (newscientist.com)
Today, while much progress has been made both in improving the health of whale populations and in calculating safe catch limits, commercial whaling under the auspices of the IWC looks less likely than ever. (newscientist.com)
But we shouldn't use this to disguise the fact that we oppose the resumption of commercial whaling on any grounds," says Llewelyn. (newscientist.com)
Commercial whaling has been banned since 1986, but Japan has been allowed to hunt the creatures for scientific purposes. (newsreview.com)
Whales already face so many serious threats in the oceans from pollution, climate change, entanglement in fish nets and ship strikes, that ending cruel commercial whaling is the only ethical conclusion. (aljazeera.com)
Despite an international ban on commercial whaling since 1986, the animals are still being hunted and killed across the world's oceans, with devastating impacts on global populations. (nrdc.org)
But as long as commercial whaling was legal and lucrative, cheating was a matter of course. (commondreams.org)
They haven't, and the proposal to re-start commercial whaling discards that idea. (commondreams.org)
The new, improved commercial whaling will be strictly controlled. (commondreams.org)
Two years ago, Obama said 'Allowing Japan to continue commercial whaling is unacceptable. (commondreams.org)
While Korea alleges scientific research for the proposed whaling, environmental activists see it as a ``thinly veiled ruse to conduct commercial whaling. (koreatimes.co.kr)

Fin whales are found over the entire NAMMCO area, ranging from polar to tropical waters. (nammco.no)
Marine mammals such as seals, sea lions, and whales, occur commonly in these waters and are important components of the ecosystem. (nafo.int)
Each year from December through March, pregnant North Atlantic right whales head to warmer Southeastern waters to give birth. (neaq.org)
Blubber is vital for whales because it helps to retain heat in cold waters and store energy and nutrition. (abc.net.au)
35 or so whaling boats moved out into the Arctic waters of the North Atlantic to a chorus of disapproval from environmentalists and antiwhaling nations around the world. (newscientist.com)
It also appears that Korea's proposal to confine whaling to its own waters ― unlike Japan that hunts whales in Antarctica ― would hardly win sympathy in the international community. (koreatimes.co.kr)

Wildlife Report: What's Wrong in the Kingdom of the Blue Whales? (nationalgeographic.com)
September on the California coast is particularly lovely, except when there are dead blue whales washing up on shore. (nationalgeographic.com)
Blue whales are remarkably agile for there size, certainly agile enough to scoop gargantuan amounts of krill, and avoid a big ship-is it possible they became disoriented and were struck? (nationalgeographic.com)
Even though the Navy has won the case, public interest in blue whales is sure to change-to say nothing of the change within the White House since November. (nationalgeographic.com)
There are many more minke and humpback whales than there are blue whales, for instance. (telegraph.co.uk)
There may be only 5,000 blue whales left in the world when once there were hundreds of thousands. (telegraph.co.uk)
The Soviets in particular became masters of the art, keeping two sets of books, turning on steam pipes designed to veil the decks of their factory ships and obscure the view of wholly illegal slaughtered blue whales and humpbacks whenever prying eyes drew near. (commondreams.org)

NOAA Fisheries has released a comprehensive population viability analysis for North Atlantic right whales, along with 2023 population estimate. (eastbayri.com)
Iceland has only one remaining whaling company, Hvalur, and its licence to hunt fin whales expires in 2023. (aljazeera.com)

But some whale populations have totally failed to recover from the great Captain Ahab massacres of the 19th and 20th centuries. (telegraph.co.uk)
Conservationists dismiss the study and says researchers could also use non-lethal methods such as sonar to gauge krill populations or ultrasound to monitor whales. (abc.net.au)
Conservationists are also worried about the study's suggestion that the lower availability of krill was due to recovering populations of humpbacks and other big whales. (abc.net.au)
Understanding the migratory patterns of large whales is of conservation importance, especially in identifying threats to specific populations. (bvsalud.org)

It's also sad to hear that residents in Ulsan, the center of the nation's whaling industry on the southeastern coast, were elated at the news for the resumption of whaling. (koreatimes.co.kr)

Male humpback whales off eastern Australia are singing less and fighting more. (popsci.com)
The Center for Coastal Studies (CCS) studies the life histories of humpback whales off New England. (capecodlife.com)
Humpback whales off California, Oregon, and Washington form a single intermixing feeding aggregation with only limited interchange with areas farther north. (cascadiaresearch.org)

The last scientific record of a sperm whale birth was 1986, without audio or video. (nationalgeographic.com)
Large, blunt conical teeth obtained from the sperm whale, Physeter macrocephalus or Physeter catadon. (mfa.org)
Sperm whale teeth were used for decorative scrimshaw as well as small functional items, such as buttons, combs, and gaming pieces. (mfa.org)

The Fisheries Agency said the five-ship fleet finished its four-month expedition without major interference from anti-whaling activists who have attempted to stop it in the past. (inquirer.net)
The total seasonal prey consumption by whales in the study area was estimated to be 774 000 t of Japanese anchovy (16% of the consumed biomass), 44 000 t of Pacific saury (1% of the consumed biomass), and 140 000 t of mackerels (14% of the consumed biomass), indicating these baleen whales are important components in the ecosystem, and warrant inclusion in fisheries assessments. (nafo.int)
To understand the role of baleen whales in the ecosystem, and to better manage fisheries at the ecosystem level through multispecies modelling, an examination of their spatio-temporal feeding habits and the extent of consumption in a given area are necessary. (nafo.int)
There are few justifications to authorize whale hunting beyond 2024," when current quotas expire, Minister of Fisheries and Agriculture Svandís Svavarsdóttir said in an op-ed in Friday's Morgunblaðið newspaper. (cnn.com)
Shigeki Takaya, a Fisheries Agency spokesman for whaling in Japan, called the incident "appalling and unforgivable. (nbcnews.com)
The fisheries agency said the use of the fund was justified because one of the towns destroyed by the tsunami was a whaling port. (motherjones.com)
Victoria: Fisheries and Wildlife Service, 1986. (andrewisles.com)
The Ministry for Food, Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries estimates the damage from the ban on whaling at more than 400 billion won a year, alleging that the number of minke whales Korea proposed hunting off its coast has increased to 16,000. (koreatimes.co.kr)

The same report found that 852 fin whales were slaughtered in Iceland from 2006 to 2018 - adding that there was no whaling in the 2019, 2020 or 2021 seasons. (cnn.com)

The work presented here evaluates the relative sampling efficiency of scent detection dogs trained to locate North Atlantic right whale scat versus opportunistic scat collection during photoidentification surveys. (researchgate.net)
Most North Atlantic right whale calves are born in the calving grounds off the southeast coast of the United States. (capecodlife.com)
The North Atlantic right whale is the official state marine mammal of Massachusetts, and they're essential to the health of the ocean. (neaq.org)
Curated by the Aquarium, the North Atlantic Right Whale Catalog is a directory of more than a million photographs of right whales dating back to 1935. (neaq.org)
The North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium was co-founded in 1986 by the New England Aquarium. (neaq.org)
There are two groups specializing in trying to protect the severely endangered North Atlantic Right Whale, of which only about 340 critters remain alive, fewer every month, it seems. (heartland.org)
The really big group, founded in 1986, is the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium (NARWC) at https://www.narwc.org/ . (heartland.org)
The small Coalition is focused on wind, saying, "We are an alliance of grassroots environmental and community organizations, scientists, and conservationists working to protect the critically endangered North Atlantic right whale and other marine life from the industrialization of our ocean habitat through large-scale offshore wind energy development. (heartland.org)
Their ongoing research is also of great interest to us, especially since the rich North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium seems to be doing little or nothing about offshore wind. (heartland.org)

It has consistently failed but instead of accepting that most nations no longer want to hunt whales, it has now simply walked out. (mongabay.com)
Norway and Iceland hunt whales too. (vegofwa.org)
Norway and Iceland also hunt whales as do indigenous groups in several countries, as allowed under international rules. (koreatimes.co.kr)

The Steve Irwin carrying a group of radical anti-whaling activists collided with another Japanese whaling vessel earlier in the day in the area on Friday in a dramatic clash Japan condemned as \'unforgivable. (nbcnews.com)

Iceland has revealed its plans to resume whaling, 13 years after its crews last fired their harpoons. (bbc.co.uk)
Iceland says fin, sei and minke whales are abundant enough for it to resume catches. (bbc.co.uk)
The Icelandic market is very small, hence it is a precondition for any whaling around Iceland to be able to export whale products to the Japanese market. (bbc.co.uk)
Iceland has not yet made the decision to go ahead, and we urge it to look to the future, which is quite clearly whale-watching rather than whaling. (bbc.co.uk)
Under the Berne Convention on European wildlife, Iceland has also rejected the listing of the Northern right whale, so rare in the eastern Atlantic it is sighted only a few times each decade. (bbc.co.uk)
Fin whales are hunted in Greenland and Iceland. (nammco.no)
Iceland and Norway also engage in whale hunting. (howstuffworks.com)
Workers hose down a large fin whale in Hvalfjordur, Iceland in 2006. (cnn.com)
Iceland says it will end whaling from 2024 amid dwindling demand and continuing controversy. (cnn.com)
According to the IWC, whose purpose is "to provide for the proper conservation of whale stocks and thus make possible the orderly development of the whaling industry," Iceland continued a small "scientific whaling program" after the 1986 embargo. (cnn.com)
More than 1,700 minke, fin and sei whales have been killed in Iceland since the 1986 embargo, according to data from the WDC. (cnn.com)
Iceland, Norway and Japan are the only countries that have continued whale hunting in the face of fierce criticism from environmentalists and animal rights defenders. (aljazeera.com)
Opposition to whaling has been on the rise in Iceland with a majority now in favour of abolishing the practice. (aljazeera.com)
Iceland has depended heavily on fishing and whaling for centuries. (aljazeera.com)
Above all, it will preserve the peace at the perpetually rancorous IWC, where Japan, Norway, and Iceland always threaten to walk out and start killing all the whales they want whenever any conservation measure is proposed, or, in the present instance, if they don't get this deal. (commondreams.org)

The extendable ventral grooves enable fin whales to engulf up to 80 tons of prey and seawater before squeezing out the latter through the rows of baleen plates (Shadwick et al. (nammco.no)
This large baleen whale belongs to the Balaenopteridae family, also called rorquals. (nammco.no)
These analyses demonstrated that the diet composition of the baleen whales is determined by spatio-temporal environmental factors and the amount of small pelagic fish carried by the Kuroshio Current. (nafo.int)
Baleen whales, in particular, are presumed to be important due to their large biomass and prey requirements (Trites et al . (nafo.int)

The humpback whales ( Megaptera novaeangliae ) along Australia's eastern coast might be giving up singing their signature songs to find a mate. (popsci.com)

Pilot whales are among the largest of the oceanic dolphins, exceeded in size only by the orca. (wikipedia.org)
A pilot whale is more robust than most dolphins and has a distinctive large, bulbous melon. (wikipedia.org)
Victorian whale rescue plan: a contingency plan for strandings of cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) on the Victorian coastline. (andrewisles.com)
New Zealand whales and dolphins. (andrewisles.com)
Whales and dolphins of New Zealand and Australia: an identification guide. (andrewisles.com)
Yes, the discovery is indeed most exciting," said geology professor Ewan Fordyce , who studies the evolution of whales and dolphins at University of Otago but who was not involved in the research. (cnn.com)
formation and splits, which aids the dolphins in In the vast majority of cases, interaction their capture (Landeau & Terborgh, 1986). (bvsalud.org)

Stomach contents from 740 common minke, 393 Bryde's and 489 sei whales in May-September during 2000-2007 off the Pacific coast of Japan were examined during the Second Phase of the Japanese Whale Research Program under Special Permit in the western North Pacific (JARPN II). (nafo.int)

Activist Paul Watson of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society said his boat was chasing the Japanese ship dragging a whale on board when another Japanese boat shot in front of his vessel, causing a collision. (nbcnews.com)
We can see the blood pouring out by the barrel," he said as he watched the Japanese haul another whale onto their vessel. (nbcnews.com)

Kitty Block, executive vice president of Humane Society International, an animal protection group based in Washington D.C., said Japan is needlessly killing whales every year. (inquirer.net)
By leaving the IWC but continuing to kill whales in the North Pacific, Japan now becomes a pirate whaling nation killing these ocean leviathans completely outside the bounds of international law," Kitty Block, president of Humane Society International, said in a statement. (mongabay.com)
Block added: "Humane Society International calls on Japan to cease whaling and for other concerned nations to let Japan know that what they propose is unacceptable. (mongabay.com)

Summer distribution of fin whales in the North Atlantic, showing sightings and effort from all North Atlantic Sightings surveys, 1987 - 2015, as well as 2007 CODA and SNESSA surveys. (nammco.no)
The possible interaction was assessed in two birth cohorts in the Faroe Islands, consisting of singleton term births from 1986 to 1987 (N=1,022), and 1994 to 1995 (N=182), respectively. (cdc.gov)

Pilot whales are cetaceans belonging to the genus Globicephala. (wikipedia.org)

For more than 30 years the Center for Coastal Studies Right Whale Ecology Program has worked to learn more about North Atlantic right whales, their use of Cape Cod Bay, and their habitat requirements. (capecodlife.com)
It's estimated that a right whale can eat one to two tons of copepods daily! (neaq.org)
Right whale Catalog #3157 and calf, sighted February 10, 2022. (neaq.org)
If you think you saw a right whale, submit your photo to the catalog. (neaq.org)

A study published in the October 2003 issue of Nature argued that naval sonar exercises could have killed beaked whales in the Canary Islands, located off northwest Africa, by forcing them to surface too quickly, causing decompression sickness, or the bends. (nationalgeographic.com)

Heroes got it all wrong: save the whales , save the world. (sfappeal.com)
Save the whales? (sfappeal.com)
Not exactly 'save the whales from death' stuff. (heartland.org)

There exist geographic forms of short-finned pilot whales off the east coast of Japan, which comprise genetically isolated stocks. (wikipedia.org)
Male long-finned pilot whales develop more circular melons than females, although this does not seem to be the case for short-finned pilot whales off the Pacific coast of Japan. (wikipedia.org)
And no, frankly, it is not good enough to defend this renewal of whaling on the grounds that it is somehow part of the cultural patrimony of Japan, or anywhere else. (telegraph.co.uk)
Japan has hunted whales for centuries as a source of protein and cheaper alternative to other meats. (inquirer.net)
This past year alone Japan has killed 333 minke whales in Antarctica and is currently hunting down 134 endangered sei whales and 170 more minke whales in the North Pacific. (hsi.org.au)
Japan has circumvented the ban by abusing a loophole in the whaling convention intended to allow for limited lethal whaling for research in order to kill thousands of whales in both Antarctica and the North Pacific year after year. (hsi.org.au)
In perhaps the most outrageous manoeuvre of all, Japan has rendered itself immune from further challenge at the ICJ by withdrawing its recognition of this international court as an arbitrator in disputes over whales. (hsi.org.au)
We are calling on the Australian Government to help us collect the $1 million fine and to send a clear and strong message that Japan must give up its whaling ambitions because the international community has agreed a different future for whales. (hsi.org.au)
Japan plans to harvest up to 935 minke whales and 50 fin whales this season. (nbcnews.com)
According to the New York Times , Japan has set an annual quota of 333 minke whales in the Southern Ocean, which led to the capture and death of 122 pregnant females in the 2017-18 hunting season. (mongabay.com)
In its long history, Japan has used whales not only as a source of protein but also for a variety of other purposes," Suga reportedly said. (mongabay.com)
But Japan isn't the only country still hunting whales, in spite of a 1986 ban on the practice. (vegofwa.org)
Environmentalists and political leaders around the globe are calling on Japan to stop a whaling fleet destined for Antarctica to hunt more than 1,000 whales, including up to 50 majestic humpback whales . (newsreview.com)

Unlike previous methods, which relied on data that was hard to obtain such as age at sexual maturity and reproductive patterns, the RMP needs only two inputs: a current estimate of the whale population and historical details of catches. (newscientist.com)

Iceland's government said it was suspending this year's whale hunt until August 31 due to animal welfare concerns, likely bringing the controversial practice to a historic end. (aljazeera.com)
Iceland's whaling season runs from mid-June to mid-September, and it is doubtful Hvalur would head out to sea that late in the season. (aljazeera.com)

We believe this is a major factor behind the recent spate of whale deaths in the Atlantic Ocean since December 1, 2022 and the ongoing Unusual Mortality Events (UMEs) dating back to 2017-18. (heartland.org)

In North Atlantic right whales (Eubalaena glacialis), a significant decline in reproduction and health in the 1990s led to the application of faecal-based analyses to study stress and reproductive endocrinology, marine biotoxin exposure and prevalence of disease-causing protozoa. (researchgate.net)

What they're showing, claiming to show, from their lethal sampling is that these whales are doing incredibly well," he says. (abc.net.au)

Sea Shepherd's ship, the M/Y Steve Irwin, collides with the stern of a Japanese harpoon whaling ship in the Ross Sea off Antarctica on Friday. (nbcnews.com)

Japanese scientists have released a study that suggests whales are losing blubber because ocean resources are growing scarce, a claim discounted by others as flawed. (abc.net.au)
He says blubber thickness is "not a very good indicator" of health in whales, recommending instead measuring the ratio of girth or length compared with the ocean giants' weight. (abc.net.au)
Use these social-bookmarking links to share Minke whales shedding blubber: study . (abc.net.au)

Pilot whales' long, sickle-shaped flippers and tail stocks are flattened from side to side. (wikipedia.org)
Fin whales are dark grey to brownish black in colour along the top of the body, while the throat, belly and undersides of the flippers and tail flukes are white. (nammco.no)

Nations also evaded regulations by conducting whaling for scientific research and by lodging objections that exempted them from the Commission's decisions. (frontiersin.org)
Both practices are allowed by the convention: Article VIII permits contracting governments to issue " special permits " authorizing whaling " for purposes of scientific research ," while Article V allows objections. (frontiersin.org)
But the IWC's Regulation of Whaling makes exceptions for countries that catch whales for scientific research. (howstuffworks.com)
Per Dr. Sidney Holt, 30-year veteran of the IWC's Scientific Committee, the falsification of data by Japanese whalers also 'occurred in the period when international (IWC) observers were assigned to the whaling platforms and. (commondreams.org)
Korea's proposal to resume hunting whales for scientific research has provoked strong protests both at home and abroad. (koreatimes.co.kr)

The two countries reportedly oppose whaling fiercely because of their tourist programs involving whales. (koreatimes.co.kr)

However, what came as a surprise to ocean researchers was the finding that dead whales support entire ecosystems. (howstuffworks.com)

Pilot whales feed primarily on squid, but will also hunt large demersal fish such as cod and turbot. (wikipedia.org)
Pilot whales are notorious for stranding themselves on beaches, but the reason behind this is not fully understood, although marine biologists have shed light on the discovery it is due to the mammals inner ear (their principal navigational sonar) being damaged from noise-pollution in the ocean, such as from cargo ships or military exercises. (wikipedia.org)
The conservation status of short-finned and long-finned pilot whales has been determined to be least concern. (wikipedia.org)
The animals were named "pilot whales" because pods were believed to be "piloted" by a leader. (wikipedia.org)
Pilot whales are mostly dark grey, brown, or black, but have some light areas such as a grey saddle patch behind the dorsal fin. (wikipedia.org)
Adult long-finned pilot whales reach a body length of approximately 6.5 m, with males being 1 m longer than females. (wikipedia.org)

The Korean Federation for Environment Movement says nearly 5,000 whales have been caught since 2000 in such manner. (koreatimes.co.kr)

The endocrine, disease, genetic and biotoxin studies currently being performed on these samples markedly improve the ability to address fundamental questions vital to effective conservation and management of highly endangered right whales. (researchgate.net)
Conservation and management of whales. (andrewisles.com)

New recordings of the whales' behavior during the birth will give researchers new insight. (nationalgeographic.com)
The team can continue to track how the whales' social behavior changes with their increased numbers. (popsci.com)
It will be fascinating to see how whale mating behavior continues to be shaped in the future. (popsci.com)
Such noise can easily cause deadly behavior by whales, including ship strikes, entanglements, and reproductive decline. (heartland.org)

Officials said the whalers used parts of the whales to determine their age, nutrition, and reproductive conditions. (inquirer.net)

A surface-active adult humpback whale migrating along the eastern coastline of Australia. (popsci.com)
In the following pages you will meet the awe-inspiring whales that cruise our coastline. (capecodlife.com)
On May 23, communities all along the length of California's coastline will turn out to protest the proposed deadly IWC compromise, including the axe that it drops on the California gray whale (proposed quota: 1,400 killed over the next ten years despite evidence of a population in decline). (commondreams.org)

The killing of whales should be banned on animal welfare grounds alone. (telegraph.co.uk)
We examined the interchange of humpback whales between one of these areas, off California, and those in other feeding grounds in the eastern North Pacific. (cascadiaresearch.org)

Organisms16

Diseases1

Chemicals and Drugs2

Analytical, Diagnostic and Therapeutic Techniques and Equipment1

Psychiatry and Psychology5

Disciplines and Occupations2

Anthropology, Education, Sociology and Social Phenomena1

Technology, Industry, Agriculture2

Health Care1

Geographicals2

Moratorium21

Japan's18

Minke whale4

Antarctic9

Meat17

Species32

Spade-toothed beaked whale5

Commercial38

Waters6

Blue whales7

20232

Populations4

Resumption1

Humpback whales off3

Sperm whale3

Fisheries8

20191

North Atlan9

Hunt whales3

Anti-whaling a1

Iceland15

Baleen4

Megaptera1

Dolphins7

Bryde's1

Vessel2

Humane Society Inter3

19872

Cetaceans1

Right whale4

Killed beaked1

Save the Wh3

Japan13

Catches1

Iceland's2

20171

Eubalaena1

Lethal1

Antarctica1

Blubber3

Flippers and tail2

Scientific5

Reportedly1

Dead whales1

Pilot whales6

5,0001

Conservation and management2

Behavior4

Whalers1

Coastline3

Grounds2