Whales and ships have long shared the seas, but with global shipping traffic on the increase – along with the speed and size of the largest vessels – their worlds are colliding with devastating consequences. 

With whales and dolphins under acoustic assault from ever increasing shipping traffic, we need to turn down the volume and talk up the solutions for the health of our oceans.

The Baltic Sea harbour porpoise is facing extinction. Only a few hundred animals are left, and under continued threat from bycatch, environmental contaminants, prey depletion and disturbance from underwater noise.

Protecting whales: a climate-positive solution for Biden’s Leaders Summit this Earth Day

It’s a global conservation success story. Humpback whale populations, once hunted to near extinction, are bouncing back, so much so that right now, the Australian Government is assessing whether to remove the Humpback whale from its threatened species list. WWF has advised the government to hold off – for now, taking a precautionary approach and delaying this assessment by an additional five years. Chris Johnson, Global Lead for WWF’s Whales and Dolphins Initiative, explains why.

When we think about threats to whales, seals and walrus in the Arctic, we don’t immediately think of underwater noise pollution. More likely, our minds go to visions of melting ice, caused by the region’s biggest threat: the climate crisis. Sea ice is essential habitat for many Arctic species, and it is also incredibly important in shaping the underwater soundscape that marine animals use to navigate, find food and mates, and avoid danger.

Protecting whales is crucial to protecting healthy oceans for all of us.

An NGO-industry collaboration to protect the Antarctic Ocean today announces a big step forward with a year-round closure of a 4,500 km2 area of ocean around Hope Bay in the northern Antarctic Peninsula.

Hundreds of thousands of endangered marine animals are dying unnecessarily every year as a result of being accidentally caught in fishing nets, according to a new report by WWF and Sky Ocean Rescue.

Unregulated fishing on the high seas of the Indian Ocean is putting marine life and seafood supplies at risk, new research shows. A report from WWF and Trygg Mat Tracking (TMT) shows for the first time exactly when, where and how unregulated fishing is happening in the region, its impacts on threatened species, and how far it is expanding.

Quebec government’s unannounced withdrawal of a segment of a proposed marine protected area (MPA) in the St. Lawrence Estuary near Saguenay, QC is concerning. During initial MPA studies, this area was found to be ecologically significant and includes important nursery areas for capelin and rainbow smelt, important food for beluga.

IMMAs are discrete portions of habitat, important for marine mammal species, that have the potential to be delineated and managed for conservation.

A third of the world's cetaceans - whales, dolphins and porpoises - are still threatened with extinction.

So-called “ghost gear”, fishing equipment which is lost in the sea, can continue killing marine life for decades or even centuries after it first enters the ocean, making it the most deadly form of marine plastic debris. WWF is calling on governments to develop a legally binding global plastic pollution treaty that addresses this fundamental threat to marine wildlife.