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
Southern Resident whales

Ambitious plan to free captive orca Lolita announced

The new owner of the Miami Seaquarium in the US has announced that it is...
Gray whale

UN adopts High Seas Treaty to protect the ocean

At the UN 'High Seas Treaty' negotiations in New York, a historic vote for the...

Hopes raised for whale and dolphin protection after last minute landmark nature agreement

WDC's Ed Goodall (far right) at COP15 with Thérèse Coffey (centre) UK Secretary of State...

WDC orca champion picks up award

Beatrice Whishart MSP picks up her Nature Champion award The Scottish Environment LINK, an organisation...
All policy news
  • All policy news
  • Create healthy seas
  • End captivity
  • Prevent deaths in nets
  • Stop whaling
  • Strandings
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...

Minke whale hunts stop in Iceland

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

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...

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...

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...

EU takes action against UK government over failure to protect porpoises

The UK government is to face action by the European court of justice for failing to provide safe habitats for harbour porpoises.

The European commission decision comes just days after the announcement that a new conservation area has been set up by the Scottish government to help protect the harbour porpoise off its western coastline.

However, this new site, and one other established in Ireland, are not enough.  Under EU law, the UK should have drawn up a list of conservation areas for porpoises. WDC has been campaigning for more sites for porpoises for a number of years because, along with a fall in breeding levels due to chemical pollution in the sea, they face additional threats such as being caught in fishing nets and from noise created by underwater pile driving activities. High levels of noise can force porpoises away from important feeding and breeding areas, and can also cause injury.

Earlier in the year we asked the public to express their opinion on plans by the governments in England, Wales, N Ireland and Scotland to create six special areas in the UK where the harbour porpoise could be protected from dangers like fishing nets and pollution. 

Nearly 9,000 of you responded to our campaign, and the announcement by the Scottish government to create a site around the inner Hebrides was warmly welcomed. However, despite pressure from WDC, and plenty of warning from the EU commission, no further sites have been created in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. As a result, the UK government now faces heavy fines.

More here

Harbour porpoise