Skip to content
All news
  • All news
  • About whales & dolphins
  • Corporates
  • Create healthy seas
  • End captivity
  • Green Whale
  • Prevent bycatch
  • Prevent deaths in nets
  • Science
  • Scottish Dolphin Centre
  • Stop whaling
  • Stranding

Norway ups whale kill numbers and removes whale welfare protections

The whaling season in Norway has begun on the back of disturbing announcements from the...
Image taken from an unmanned hexacopter at >100ft during a research collaboration between NOAA/SWFSC, SR3 and the Coastal Ocean Research Institute. Research authorized by NMFS permit #19091.

Southern Resident orca petition to list them under Oregon Endangered Species Act advanced

The Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission voted today to advance a petition seeking to protect...
Hysazu Photography

WDC and Conservation Partners Continue to Seek Oregon Endangered Species Protection for Southern Resident Orcas

On Friday, April 21st, the Oregon Fish and Wildlife Commission will determine whether the petition...
WDC Seal Rescue April 2023 (1)

WDC conducts milestone seal rescue in Marshfield

For Immediate Release, April 10, 2023 MARSHFIELD, MA - A young grey seal was found...

Expert Says Orca Was Blown Up During Navy Training Exercise

A 3-year-old member of an endangered orca population in the Pacific North West found dead on a Washington State beach recently was blown up, according to Ken Balcomb, director of the locally-based Center for Whale Research.

The body of Sooke, was found on the beach on February 11th 2012, just days after the Canadian Navy held training exercises in nearby waters.
Experts performing an autopsy on Sooke’s carcass say that it will be at least a month before they are ready to release any firm conclusions on the cause of death but Balcomb, who examined the signs of trauma on Sooke’s carcass, has told the local San Juan Journal: “It didn’t die of disease or starvation. Clearly the animal was blown up.”

At the time of the naval exercises, an extensive network of hydrophones (monitoring sound underwater) in the area picked up a series of four loud explosions or implosions that remain unexplained.

Balcomb noted that the both the US and Canadian Navy conduct training exercises in a federally sanctioned bombing range located nearby in the Pacific Ocean.

Sooke was one of only three surviving females born to this threatened pod in 10 years and this population now numbers just 86 animals.
WDCS anxiously awaits the full results of this complicated examination.
 
Source: San Juan Journal