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© New England Aquarium and Canadian Whale Institute under DFO Canada SARA permit

Scientists unveil new names for 19 North Atlantic right whales

December 6, 2023 - Contact: Regina Asmutis-Silvia, Whale and Dolphin Conservation, (508) 451-3853, [email protected] Pam...
© Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute, taken under NOAA permit #26919. Funded by United States Army Corps of Engineers

Birth announcement! First right whale calf of the 2024 calving season spotted

November 29, 2023 - On November 28th, researchers from the Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute...
© Peter Flood

Two New England-based nonprofits awarded nearly $400k federal grant

© Peter Flood November 20, 2023 - Contact: Jake O'Neill, Conservation Law Foundation, (617) 850-1709,...
Right whale - Regina WDC

North Atlantic right whale population has stabilized

WDC attends Ropeless Consortium and North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium WDC was in Canada this...

New report links toxins to whale strandings and low fertility levels

A new study, to be released this week by the Institute of Zoology in London, will reveal high toxin levels in large numbers of dead whales, dolphins and porpoises that have stranded on shores around Europe.

Scientists involved in the research warn that samples from the 1,081 marine mammals studied indicate that the accumulation of these deadly toxins may cause the strandings, and drastically lower fertility levels. It is thought that pollutants such as flame retardants and PCBs, man-made compounds used widely in electrical equipment until the 1970s, suppress the immune system, making the animals become distressed from multiple bacterial, parasitic and other infections.

This new report follows another by scientists at Aberdeen University released in February , which found very high levels of chemical toxins in the bodies of a pod of whales stranded in Scotland three years ago. That study suggested that chemicals could have been a factor in the whales navigating off course.