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WDC2023-007 NMLC Release (16)

Seal Rescued in Marshfield Released Back Into The Wild

For Immediate Release, May 31, 2023 PLYMOUTH, MA - A young male grey seal that...

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...

115 whales killed for ‘science’

The Japanese Fisheries Agency has announced that 90 sei whales and 25 Bryde’s whales have been slaughtered by its whale hunting fleet in the north western Pacific.

The annual hunts started in May  and, according to officials from the Japanese Institute of Cetacean Research the whales have been killed for scientific purposes such as studying stomach contents and taking skin samples.

In March 2014, the International Court of Justice ruled that this so-called ‘research whaling’ in the Antarctic contravened a 1986 moratorium on whale hunting as it offered little or no scientific value, with most of the meat ending up on sale commercially.

Japan has long used this research loophole in the 1986 ban on commercial whale hunting to justify the hunts, a policy that has brought growing criticism from the international community.

WDC is particularly critical of the decision to kill Sei whales in these new hunts as Japan does not have a reservation for Sei whales under CITES Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES).

Read more Japan´s announcement to draft a new whaling programme in the north western Pacific here

Help stop the Japanese whale hunts. Join our campaign.