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Pilot whale

How we need to support Faroese communities to end the whale and dolphin hunts

Hayley Flanagan Hayley is WDC's engagement officer, specializing in creating brilliant content for our website...
Harbour porpoise. Image: Charlie Phillips/WDC

Speaking up for the little guys – WDC in action

Whales and dolphins face so many dangers. These intelligent beings are crucial for the wellbeing...
Humpback whale fluke in Alaska.

An unforgettable first encounter – observing the whales we work to protect

I have kept a dark secret since joining WDC back in June 2021. Despite my...

WDC in Japan – Part 2: Digital dolphins

Welcome to the second chapter of my incredible journey to build alliances in Japan. As...

Endangered humpback whale dies off Long Island, NY from fishing gear entanglement

Only four days ago, the Atlantic Large Whale Disentanglement Team received a report of an entangled humpback whale off Long Island.  Yesterday, that same whale was found dead.  The young female appears to have died as a result of becoming entangled in gillnetting, a gear type that NOAA’s National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) exempted from their latest proposed rule to reduce vertical line entanglements. NMFS ignored repeated requests by WDC and others asking the Agency to include all fixed fishing gear in their plan, including gillnetting.  Also of concern is the proposed plan does not reduce risk in the mid-Atlantic, including the waters off New York.  Instead, it simply asks for additional gear marking measures to identify the gear once the whale becomes entangled.  The plan also largely ignores humpback whale even though they remain listed as endangered in the US.  But perhaps the real tragedy is that this whale had the misfortune of dying during a US government shutdown, a time when no rules will be released to protect whales or actions taken to determine where the gear originated.   

Photo courtesy of our friends at Riverhead Foundation.