A new report from the WWF Global Arctic Programme highlights the urgency of taking concrete action to safeguard Arctic whales on their migrations, as they are faced with new and growing pressure from climate change and increased shipping activity.

Using cutting-edge technology, researchers are uncovering profound links among ocean health, climate change, and the denizens of the deep.

Antarctic sea ice provides refuge for a range of species, from tiny crustaceans like Antarctic krill to the largest penguin species – the emperor penguin, who rely on sea ice habitats for their survival. As the Antarctic environment experiences rapid environmental change, many Antarctic species are feeling the heat.

Due to its high productivity, the Hellenic Trench is a refuge for a range of marine life including many cetaceans. It’s the primary habitat for an endangered group of sperm whales found only in the Mediterranean Sea and believed to number less than 200 individuals.

You may not realize but an unlikely hero resides in the Southern Ocean, Antarctic krill. These tiny crustaceans, no larger than a paperclip, are critical to the Southern Ocean food web and feed a wide variety of species, including baleen whales, penguins, seals and many other marine wildlife, who depend on them to survive.

In the realm of wildlife conservation, there are few figures as revered and impactful as Dr. Roger Payne, a distinguished biologist whose unwavering dedication to the science of whale communication and their conservation has left an indelible mark on the world. On June 10, 2023, Roger passed away at his home in Vermont at the age of 88.

In Mexico, the Whale Disentanglement Network, known as RABEN (Red de Asistencia a Ballenas Enmalladas) has grown into an internationally recognized network, applauded for its many successful rescues. 

WWF’s Chris Johnson, and a group of whale ecologists, including Dr. Ari Friedlaender from the University of California Santa Cruz, recently made the journey to Antarctica to conduct vital research.

Research on the feeding behaviour of Antarctic minke whales found that a smaller whale could not capture enough food to survive using the lunge-feeding strategy of baleen whales.

WWF strongly welcomes the agreement of the text for a new global legally binding High Seas Treaty reached by nations today in New York, creating a framework to conserve marine life and restrain harmful activities in two-thirds of the ocean.

A new report from WWF and partners, including Oregon State University, the University of California Santa Cruz, the University of Southampton, and Universidad de Valparaiso, identifies actions for governments, industry and individuals to safeguard whale migratory routes, along the Eastern Pacific Ocean by 2030. Climate change, ship traffic, underwater noise and fishing activity impact whales and their survival at multiple points.

WWF is urging countries to finalize a new global agreement for the two-thirds of the ocean that is largely unprotected and overexploited, as talks over the last 15 years are anticipated to conclude in a ‘High Seas Treaty’ over the next few weeks.

Vast expanses of our global ocean are unprotected – putting whales and other marine life in peril. A historic Global Ocean Treaty now in negotiations offers hope to better manage and protect biodiversity on the high seas.

There is still much we don’t know about the Caribbean’s 33 known cetacean species – more than one-third of the world’s total.

Ti Whale An Nou – the whale and dolphin research programme that gets its name from a mix of French and English Creole meaning ‘our little whales’ – is starting to fill in these gaps.