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Orca Lulu's body contained PCB levels 100x above the safe limit. Image: SMASS

Toxic tides, troubled whales: the toll of chemical pollution

In last week's blog, we examined the challenges whales and dolphins face as they travel...
Group of orcas at surface

Breaking barriers for whales and dolphins at the Convention of Migratory Species

Many species of whales, dolphins and porpoises undertake long journeys, encountering human-made obstacles along the...
Tokyo

WDC in Japan – Part 1: Finding allies in Tokyo

At the end of May, I embarked on an incredible journey to Japan on behalf...
Amazon river dolphins leaping

The state of river dolphin conservation

At Whale and Dolphin Conservation, we partner with conservationists and communities fighting to save river...
Researchers in Southeast Alaska studying whale poo

We’re funding crucial research on whale poo to combat the climate crisis

The ocean is one of the lungs of our planet, and whales help it to...
Narwhal surfacing

The unicorns of the sea must be protected – CITES

The narwhal, is under threat. Often referred to as the unicorns of the sea, narwhals,...
Sperm whales

We’re pushing governments for action for our climate heroes – whales

The climate crisis is the greatest threat to all life on Earth. But there is...
Dolphins captured for captivity in Taiji. Image: Hans Peter Roth

Loved and killed – whales and dolphins in Japan

Protests and criticism from outside Japan in response to the slaughter of whales and dolphins...

Battle Scars…

Life can be rough at this time of year as an adult male dolphin – territories and females to defend, disputes to settle and also keeping some of the young upstart “lads” firmly in their place…it’s all go. As you can see in the composite photo below, both of the big male Bottlenose dolphins that you can adopt with us at WDC that I have seen in the last few days have been having a busy summer. Mischief, in the top section of the photo has picked up some brand new “rake marks” on his dorsal fin plus some along his back and the same goes for Sundance, the dolphin lower in the picture and he has some impressive new rakes on his body too. This isn’t unusual and in Bottlenose dolphin society this is all part of everyday life – Bottlenoses can fight, sometimes just a bit of rough and tumble (play-fighting) but at other times it gets really serious and their impressive array of teeth that are all the same size and shape come into use, often to dramatic effect like these rakes. They will eventually fade and may even get more new ones on top creating many layers that you can sometimes see in certain light conditions. Every scratch, every score, every bite mark tells a story, an encounter – a moment in time in the amazing world of a wild, free dolphin- the way that they all should be.