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Japan whalers discuss plan to resume commercial hunt July 1
TOKYO (AP) - Japanese whalers discussed plans Thursday to resume their commercial hunting along the northeastern coast on July 1, for the first time in three decades. Their preparation follows Japan's decision in December to leave the International Whaling Commission, abandoning decades-long campaigning in hopes of gaining support within the organization that has largely become a home for conservationists. The Fisheries Agency said whalers in six Pacific coast towns, including Taiji, which is known for dolphin hunts, were expected to bring five vessels to form a joint fleet beginning July 1, one day after Japan formally withdraws from the IWC...
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Whales share songs from other oceans
New research suggests that humpback whale populations in the Atlantic and Indian Oceans are picking up musical ideas from one another, and incorporating the new phrases and themes into their songs. According to the study, published November 28, 2018, in the peer-reviewed journal Royal Society Open Science, humpback whale populations in different Southern Hemisphere ocean basins (the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans) sing similar song types, but the amount of similarity differs across years.
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+41 +1
Japan to restart commercial whale hunts
One conservation group warns that the move shows "a troubling disregard for international rule".
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Why Scientists Are Starting to Care About Cultures That Talk to Whales
Harry Brower Sr. was lying in a hospital bed in Anchorage, Alaska, close to death, when he was visited by a baby whale. Although Brower’s body remained in Anchorage, the young bowhead took him more than 1,000 kilometers north to Barrow (now Utqiaġvik), where Brower’s family lived. They traveled together through the town and past the indistinct edge where the tundra gives way to the Arctic Ocean.
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+23 +1
Japan to withdraw from IWC to resume commercial whaling: sources
Japan has decided to withdraw from the International Whaling Commission in a bid to resume commercial whaling, government sources said Thursday. However, the country is unlikely to catch whales in the Antarctic Ocean even after its IWC pullout, as the government is mulling allowing Japan's commercial whaling only in seas near Japan as well as the country's exclusive economic zone, the sources added.
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+34 +1
Canada Passes A Bill That Bans The Captivity Of Dolphins And Whales
Cetaceans like dolphins and whales will no longer be kept in Canadian aquariums after the government passed a bill that prohibits their captivity. The bill, S-203, was first proposed in 2015, and it was finally passed after three years of intense legislative battles. With the bill in effect, Canada has taken another step towards becoming more environmentally responsible. The most uplifting thing about the bill is that there was support across the political parties.
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Humpback whale songs simplified during ‘cultural revolutions’
Humpback whales sing increasingly complex songs, but University of Queensland researchers have discovered they may suddenly switch to something simpler, in a ‘cultural revolution’. The study examined the structure and complexity of songs sung by the eastern Australian humpback whale population over 13 consecutive years. Dr Jenny Allen from UQ’s Cetacean Ecology and Acoustics Laboratory said members of humpback whale populations were known to sing the same song at any one time.
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+18 +1
The History of the Oceans Is Locked in Whale Earwax
The massive plugs contain spikes and dips of stress hormones that perfectly match the history of modern whaling. By Ed Yong.
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+38 +1
Whale 'had 115 plastic cups' in stomach
The dead sperm whale, which washed ashore in Indonesia, had ingested nearly 6kg of plastic waste.
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+23 +1
Illegal 'Whale Jail' Has Been Spotted in Russia, Lifting The Lid on a Massive Animal Exploitation Industry
Over 100 captured whales are being held in small, crowded enclosures in a so-called 'whale jail' off the coast of Russia, where they await suspected sale to Chinese theme parks, according to local media reports.
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World's humpback whale population booming thanks to the Kimberley
Humpback whales, once hunted around the world to the point that they became so rare that the industry built on their blubber went belly-up, is booming. The world's largest population passes through Australia's Kimberley, a region that provides ideal and undeveloped calving grounds, researchers say. Since the whaling stations were closed, humpbacks that visit Western Australia have become the good news story that defies the trend of environmental doom and gloom.
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+20 +1
Scientists count whales from space
UK scientists demonstrate the practicality of identifying and counting whales from orbit.
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+7 +1
Senate passes bill that would ban whale, dolphin captivity in Canada | CBC News
After a multi-year legislative battle, a bill to outlaw keeping cetaceans like whales and dolphins in captivity has cleared the Senate — all but ensuring the end of a once-popular theme park attraction in Canada.
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Google AI listens to 15 years of sea-bottom recordings for hidden whale songs
Google and a group of game cetologists have undertaken an AI-based investigation of years of undersea recordings, hoping to create a machine learning model that can spot humpback whale calls.
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+19 +1
Orca 'apocalypse': half of killer whales doomed to die from pollution
At least half of the world’s killer whale populations are doomed to extinction due to toxic and persistent pollution of the oceans, according to a major new study. Although the poisonous chemicals, PCBs, have been banned for decades, they are still leaking into the seas. They become concentrated up the food chain; as a result, killer whales, the top predators, are the most contaminated animals on the planet.
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Could the ban on killing whales end?
Few conservation issues generate as emotional a response as whaling. Are we now about to see countries killing whales for profit again? Commercial whaling has been effectively banned for more than 30 years, after some whales were driven almost to extinction. But the International Whaling Committee (IWC) is currently meeting in Brazil and next week will give its verdict on a proposal from Japan to end the ban.
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+19 +1
Bid to reduce right whale deaths 'extremely effective,' Canadian officials say
A year after the population of critically endangered North Atlantic right whales suffered devastating losses, Canadian officials say measures taken this season to protect the species have worked. With the summer fishing season in the Gulf of St. Lawrence drawing to a close, the federal Fisheries Department confirmed Friday that not one whale has died as a result of a ship strike or fishing gear entanglement — the main causes for most of the deaths last season.
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+18 +1
Grieving orca mother carries dead calf for days as whales fight for survival
Whale is one of just 75 in an endangered group off the coast of Washington state and Canada. A grieving mother orca near Vancouver Island has been carrying her dead calf for four days, after refusing to leave her baby behind when the rest of her pod left. The mother whale, named J35 by researchers, gave birth Tuesday in what was initially a hopeful moment. Mother and female calf were seen swimming together that morning near Victoria, British Columbia, according to the Washington state-based Center for Whale Research.
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+24 +1
Calls in Iceland to ban commercial hunting of whales
Iceland does not publicise its whale hunting industry much, and with declining public support, graphic images of what could be a Blue Whale being slaughtered is a PR nightmare for the country.
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The killing of a blue whale reveals how disconnected we are from nature
We need a better story than the pathetic one played out by beautiful animals that we haul into the sea of our ignorance, says the writer Philip Hoare
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