whales

Governments around the world are waking up to the scourge of plastics on our oceans and its creatures by banning items such as shopping bags and drinking straws. But an often-overlooked form of plastic waste is also a major threat to our seas: “ghost” gear. A report released Thursday from World Animal Protection highlights that […]

The North Atlantic right whale is already one of the most endangered whales, with fewer than 450 of the iconic marine mammals left on the planet. But the situation appears to be getting worse: Researchers tracking the whales‘ usual calving grounds off Georgia and northern Florida have not seen a single calf yet this breeding […]

For the first time ever, scientists in Antarctica have attached a camera to a minke—one of the most poorly understood of all the whale species. And in an incredible bonus for researchers, the camera (which adheres with suction cups) slid down the side of the animal—but stayed attached—providing remarkable video of the way it feeds. […]

Ireland’s Dáil Éireann, the country’s lower house of parliament, voted 78-48 Thursday to advance a bill to stop the government from issuing new contracts for both on and offshore oil and gas exploration. Despite strong opposition from the Irish government, the legislation was backed by thousands of activists, campaigners, parliamentarians as well as a surprising […]

Some of our oceans‘ largest creatures are being threatened by the tiniest bits of plastic that litter our seas, a new analysis published in the journal Trends in Ecology & Evolution found. Filter-feeding marine animals such as manta rays and whale sharks swallow hundreds to thousands of cubic meters of water a day to capture […]

Canada is losing a lot of its wildlife. The World Wildlife Fund’s 2017 Living Planet Report Canada found half the monitored mammal, bird, reptile, amphibian and fish species declined from 1970 to 2014. Threatened and endangered species continue to disappear despite federal legislation designed to protect them and help their populations recover. What’s going wrong? […]

By Andy Rowell There are increasing environmental and health concerns surrounding the oil spill in the East China Sea from the Iranian registered tanker, the Sanchi, which sank on Monday carrying 136,000 tons, or one million barrels, of a highly flammable oil mix called condensate. The tanker had burned for a week before exploding after […]

Greenpeace’s ship Arctic Sunrise is on its way to Antarctica, where the crew on board will be the first humans ever to visit the seafloor in the Weddell Sea. The three-month expedition will aim to further the case for a massive ocean sanctuary. In an effort to combat the threats of overfishing, plastic pollution and […]