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...

Possible lifeline for threatened orcas in Russia

According to a draft order from the Russian Ministry of Natural Resources, an orca ecotype known as Bigg’s (or transient) orcas, who roam across vast areas in the waters of Russia’s Far East will be given their own entry in the Russian Red Book – a document that lists rare and endangered species.

The draft order needs to have final approval from the Russian government but, if successful, will give them special status and mean that no more of these orcas will be allowed to be captured for commercial purposes, such as captivity shows.

Bigg’s orcas are part of a group that eat other marine mammals such as harbour seals, minke whales and gray whale calves rather than fish and, according to estimates from our Russian partners at the Far East Russia Orca Project (FEROP), only a few hundred of them remain in the seas around Russia. As many as 16 to 20 orcas – most if not all transients – have been removed for aquariums in the past three years which could have a dramatic impact on the rest of the population.