According to a January 3, 2025 news release, Japan’s major whaling company, Mutual Ship, plans to increase its whale meat supply by 30% in 2025, expected to reach more than 2,000 tons, and has issued a new fishing quota for large, resource-rich fin whales for the first time in half a century.

In 2024, a 13-meter-long adult male sperm whale stranded tragically on a beach in Nova Scotia, Canada, with 300 pounds of fishing gear stuffed in its stomach, which severely interfered with its ability to eat, causing it to lose weight and ultimately strand itself.

On December 16, 2024, a 3-year-old North Atlantic right whale was found trapped in fishing gear and wandering in the waters off the Outer Banks Islands in North Carolina, USA. With its head and mouth tightly entangled in several fishing lines and two buoys in tow, its fate was not promising. In the same week,…

A globally rare Longman’s beaked whale was stranded in the waters of Tai O, Hong Kong. There were various bleeding wounds on its body, which were suspected to be caused by the friction between the whale’s body and sand and stones. Moreover, a large canvas bag was found in its digestive system. In the end,…

Recently, a mass dolphin stranding was reported in Novorossiysk, Russia. A large number of dolphins were stranded on the beach, and the local authorities and rescue organizations responded quickly and rushed to the scene at the first time to carry out rescue operations. At present, the cause of the incident is still under in-depth investigation,…

Marine noise pollution has always been a problem and has become worse over the past 20 years, as shown by the dramatic increase in noise levels in Vestfjord, north-west Norway, which has seriously disrupted cetacean positioning, feeding and communication, and may even be a contributing factor to mass strandings of whales.

Police in Greenland, a self-governing territory of Denmark, released Paul Watson, a prominent American anti-whaling activist, on December 17th local time, rejecting an extradition request from the Japanese authorities. The release of Paul Watson, who is the founder of the Sea Guardians Association and the Captain Paul Watson Foundation, and who has been working against…

New research shows that krill abundance is directly related to humpback whale pregnancy rates. When krill is plentiful, it is easier for humpback whales to conceive; when it is not, it is harder. Krill is a key link in the marine food chain, and the expansion of industrial krill fishing has led to fluctuations in…

According to Jiefang Daily on December 8, more than 30 pilot whales stranded on a beach near the city of Wangare in northern New Zealand recently, and hundreds of local residents and staff from related organizations dragged them back to the sea by means of cloth slips, while volunteers stayed on the shore all night…

The Icelandic government has granted whaling licenses to two whaling companies for the next five years, allowing them to catch 209 fin whales and 217 minke whales during the annual whaling season from mid-June to September, AFP reported on December 5th. Fin whales are the second largest cetacean after blue whales and are listed as…