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Dominica announces new protections for sperm whales

Dominica has placed almost 800 square kilometers of sea off the west coast of the...
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...
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...
All policy news
  • All policy news
  • Create healthy seas
  • End captivity
  • Prevent deaths in nets
  • Stop whaling
  • Strandings

Minke whale hunts stop in Iceland

Iceland’s commercial hunt of minke whales has ended for this year. The common minke whale is the...
Port River dolphins

New report reveals 100,000 dolphins and small whales hunted every year

When you hear the words ‘dolphin hunts’ it’s likely that you think of Japan or...

Japan set to resume commercial whaling

Reports from Japan suggest that the government they will formally propose plans to resume commercial...

End the whale hunts! Icelandic fin whaler isolated as public mood shifts

Here’s a sight I hoped never again to witness. A boat being scrubbed and repainted...

Australian Government to block Japanese whaling proposal

Japanese Government officials have reportedly confirmed that they will propose the resumption of commercial whaling...

Did Icelandic whalers really kill a blue whale?

*Warning - this blog contains an image that you may find upsetting* They say a...

Icelandic whalers breach international law and kill iconic, protected whale by mistake

Icelandic whalers out hunting fin whales for the first time in three years appear to...

Pregnant whales once again a target for Japanese whalers

Figures from Japan's whaling expedition to Antarctica during the 2017/18 austral summer have revealed that...

Doubts remain after Icelandic Marine Institute claims slaughtered whale was a hybrid not a blue

Experts remain sceptical of initial test results issued by the Icelandic Marine Institute, which indicate...

Norway's whaling season begins

April 1st saw the start of the whaling season in Norway. Despite a widely-accepted international moratorium...

SOS alert for whales off Norway!

I have to admit to bitter disappointment when I arrived in Tromsø, northern Norway, a...

Icelandic fin whale hunting to resume

Iceland’s only fin whaling company, Hvalur hf,  announced today that it will resume fin whaling...

Whale calls recorded at deepest point of the Earth’s surface

The first audio recordings taken from the deepest point on the Earth’s surface have reveal a number of amazing sounds, including the calls of different species of whale. 

Little is known about what happens in the Mariana Trench, located at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean around 322 km (200 miles) southwest of Guam, but the recording do shed some light on what is a dark place (where the sun never shines).

The crushing pressure levels at such extreme depths prevent in-depth exploration and so a team from US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) decided to listen in at least by dropping a titanium-encased recording device (hydrophone) down to Challenger Deep, the trench’s deepest point.

Aside from whale song, over a 23 day period the researchers recorded the propeller of a boat travelling across the surface 10.9 km (6.7 miles) away, the sound of a typhoon raging overhead and the rumbling of earthquakes.

Listen to whale calls before and after an earthquake

The purpose of the research work is to help determine if human-created noise in the ocean is getting louder, and so measure the impact on marine animals that use sound to communicate, navigate and feed, such as whales and dolphins.

Find out more about the impact of noise pollution and WDC’s work on this issue