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
Vaquita. Photo Thomas Jefferson

Scientific Committee gives first ever official species extinction warning

Photo: Thomas Jefferson We have welcomed the urgent call by experts to protect the vaquita...
blue whale

Whale fossil from Peru may have been heavier than blue whale

Scientists examining the bones of a 39 million-year-old ancient whale have concluded that it may...
Humpback whale © Christopher Swann

Humpback whales breach in synchronisation

Humpback whales are renowned for their incredible acrobatic displays, but a family in the USA...
Long-finned pilot whale

Unusual activity witnessed before pilot whale stranding

Just days after a pod of long-finned pilot whales stranded on an island in the...

US agreement offers hope for whales and dolphins in Gulf of Mexico

WDC is delighted by a landmark US legal decision to exclude underwater surveys for oil and gas from some important whale and dolphin habitats in the Gulf of Mexico.

The long-awaited settlement agreement followed legal challenges to the seismic surveys, which emit loud pulses of noise sent down to the seabed to locate oil and gas deposits, and also forces investigation into the use of alternative, quieter methods.

The ruling will not take effect until approved by the court, but in the meantime, the DeSoto Canyon and certain sperm whale habitats will immediately be off-limits to the surveys, and a coastal area exclusion during the peak bottlenose dolphin calving season has also been established.

This is a big and long overdue win for the Gulf of Mexico whales”, says WDC policy lead Sarah Dolman. For too long, governments have allowed the oil and gas industry world-wide to apply ineffective and short term mitigation measures during intensely noisy seismic surveys. Whales and dolphins that rely on the Gulf of Mexico habitat have suffered decades of on-going seismic surveys. This US decision offers real protection to whales and dolphins by putting their critical habitats off limits to seismic surveys. 

“In addition, a requirement to investigate quieter alternatives to airguns is forward thinking and should be an approach that is pursued world-wide, not just in the Gulf of Mexico, and by other noise-inducing sectors, including the marine renewables and shipping industries.”