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

Dead whale beauty products to be sold in Japanese vending machine stores

https://au.whales.org/2023/05/12/dead-whale-beauty-products-to-be-sold-in-japanese-vending-machine-stores/

Arrests made following illegal whale meat smuggling from Japan to South Korea

Customs authorities in Busan, South Korea, have arrested six people for allegedly smuggling at least...

New report on Icelandic hunts reveals whale can take two hours to die

Fin whale with unexploded grenade harpoon embedded in his or her side. © Hard To...

Norway ups whale kill numbers and removes whale welfare protections

https://au.whales.org/2023/05/04/norway-ups-whale-kill-numbers-and-removes-whale-welfare-protections/

Fin whales return to old feeding grounds in Southern Ocean

An exciting discovery by researchers in the waters around Antarctica suggest that fin whales are starting to return to their former feeding grounds.

During the first part of the 20th century, commercial whaling decimated whale numbers in the region as whalers reduced populations to a fraction of their original figure. By the time it become commercially unviable to hunt fin whales in the mid 1970s, over 700,000 had been hunted, leaving just a few thousand remaining.

Now 40 years later, as the population slowly starts to recover, it appears they are returning to places they had all but disappeared from.

Surveys in the area have sighted large number of fin whales gathering around the Antarctic peninsula to feed, including the first scientific documentation of the whales at Elephant Island.

This exciting discovery is not just good news for fin whales. They also play a valuable role in the local ecosystem, helping with the distribution of vital nutrients through a process known as the "The Whale Pump". The fin whales were seen feeding on krill which themselves feed on phytoplankton. Phytoplankton flourishes in an iron-rich environment, a major source of which is whale poo! By allowing whale numbers to increase will hopefully have a major benefit on the wider ocean environment.

Read the full report:
Herr, H., Viquerat, S., Devas, F. et al. Return of large fin whale feeding aggregations to historical whaling grounds in the Southern Ocean. Sci Rep 12, 9458 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-13798-7

Related News

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 have not only failed to stop the killing, but also...
Irrawaddy dolphin

Helping fishers protect dolphins in Sarawak, Borneo

Fishing nets are bad news for dolphins and porpoises, so we're working with local fishers in Hong Kong and Sarawak, Borneo to save lives and...

Dead whale beauty products to be sold in Japanese vending machine stores

https://au.whales.org/2023/05/12/dead-whale-beauty-products-to-be-sold-in-japanese-vending-machine-stores/

Arrests made following illegal whale meat smuggling from Japan to South Korea

Customs authorities in Busan, South Korea, have arrested six people for allegedly smuggling at least 4.6 tonnes of whale meat (worth around €400,000) into the...

Leave a Comment