Sergio Moraes / Reuters
Rescue workers try to tow a dead Bryde's whale off a beach in Rio de Janeiro on March 20.
Sergio Moraes / Reuters
A man body surfs in front of a dead Bryde's whale in Rio de Janeiro on March 20.
Water sports continued at a Sao Conrado beach in Rio de Janeiro as rescue crews attempted to tow a dead whale away from shore. According to reports, The Aqualung Institute identified it as a Bryde's whale.
David McNew / Getty Images
A person inside an underwater viewing pod in the hull of a catamaran watches bottlenose dolphins off the southern California coast on Jan. 30, 2012 near Dana Point, Calif.
By msnbc.com staff and news services - The lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, claims that the Navy's sonar use might be strong enough to kill the animals outright. But even if it doesn't, it claims, the repeated use of sonar in certain critical habitats is unwarranted.
The alliance said it wasn't seeking to stop the testing but to scale it back, especially at certain times and in waters important for feeding and giving birth.
Several studies have found that marine mammals can hear low-frequency sonar, which is magnified under water, and periodically dolphins and even whales have been found with perforated ear drums.
GRAPHIC WARNING: This post contains graphic images which some viewers may find disturbing.
David R Arnott writes:
Dozens of boats herded a group of pilot whales into a bay for slaughter in the Faroe Islands on Tuesday as local residents took part in a traditional 'Grindadrap' whale hunt.
Andrija Ilic / Reuters
Inhabitants of the Faroe Islands round up pilot whales (Globicephala melaena) during the traditional 'Grindadrap' ('whale hunting' in Faroese) near the capital Torshavn on November 22.
Andrija Ilic / Reuters
The meat and blubber of pilot whales have long been a part of the islanders' national diet, according to Reuters, which reports that the whaling is not done for commercial purposes.
Nevertheless, The Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, a pressure group, says that the techniques used to kill the whales are "intensely stressful and cruel."
In a statement posted on a government-run website, the Faroe Islands' Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that they were committed to "internationally adopted principles for the conservation and sustainable use of living marine resources."
There were 5 whale drives between January and September this year, with a total catch of 406 pilot whales, according to the Faroese government statement.
The American Cetacean Society says that pilot whales are not considered to be endangered, but that there has been a noticeable decrease in their numbers around the Faroe Islands.
Andrija Ilic / Reuters
The blood of slaughtered pilot whales turns the sea red near Torshavn on November 22.
Jose Cabezas / AFP - Getty Images
Two boys look at the body of a humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) at Toluca beach, 50 km south from San Salvador, El Salvador on July 4.
Jeff J Mitchell / Getty Images
A pilot whale with an injured nose rises out of the water as a pod of approximately 70 gather in Loch Carron on May 20, 2011 in South Uist, Scotland.
LONDON - Marine experts fear a pod of around 70 pilot whales is in danger of becoming stranded off the Western Isles of Scotland. Around 20 are believed to have severe head injuries, although the cause is yet unknown.
However, the Mearns Leader newspaper reports on its website that the whales are not in imminent danger.
Xinhua / Gamma-Rapho via Getty Images
Staff members of Hunan Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau sterilize the box containing a dolphin at Huanghua Airport on March 30, 2011 in Changsha, capital of central China's Hunan Province. Four dolphins from Japan, which have received radiation checks, will be on show to tourists at the Changsha Sea World after a month long quarantine.
According to this story, these dolphins were shipped from Taiji, Japan, which is about 400 miles southwest of the Fukushima nuclear power plant. It's also the site of a film about the dolphin industry called "The Cove," which won an Oscar for Best Documentary Feature in 2009.
EPA
A 25-meter-long whale lies dead on a beach of the San Rossore protected area near Pisa, Italy, on Jan. 26. Reports state that the employees of the San Rossore protected area and the port authority have been authorized to remove the carcass.
While sad, even in death, the magnificence of this animal is undeniable. The colors of the sunset reflected in its skin make for a lovely obituary.
Oli Scarff / Getty Images
Margarida Andrade, a conservation technician, adjusts the skeleton of a northern bottlenose whale which swam up the river Thames to London in 2006 and has been installed in the Natural History Museum in Tring, England on Jan. 18. The female six metre long whale was spotted in the Thames in central London on January 19, 2006 and died during a rescue effort to transport it out to sea on a barge.
Oli Scarff / Getty Images
Richard Sabin, the Curator of Mammals, adjusts the skeleton of the northern bottlenose whale at the Natural History Museum in Tring, England on Jan. 18.
John D Mchugh / AFP - Getty Images
Edwin Timewell chases a whale away from the banks of the River Thames in London on Jan. 20, 2006. The northern bottle nosed whale sparked the affection of onlookers as it made its way past several London landmarks.
John D Mchugh / AFP - Getty Images
Rescuers make an utltimately futile attempt to help the whale on Jan. 21, 2006. They aimed to lift it onto a barge and take it out to sea.
The skeleton of a northern bottlenose whale that died after becoming stranded in the River Thames has gone on public display at the Natural History Museum in Tring, England, almost five years to the day since it entered the affections of the British people by swimming into the heart of London.
More in this BBC report.
Shmuel Thaler / Santa Cruz Sentinel / AP)
In this Oct. 5, 2010 photo, California Highway Patrol officer Cotton Tichy and an unidentified man view the carcass of a blue whale that washed ashore over the weekend at Bean Hollow State Beach near Pescadero, Calif. The California Academy of Sciences says its researchers plan to take blubber samples, skin samples and conduct a thorough visual inspection for possible wounds. The animal will be allowed to decompose and wash out to sea once the samples are taken.
I wonder how long it takes a whale of that size to decompose.
Paulo A. Flores, ICMBio / Reuters
Workers use heavy equipment to move the carcass of a Southern Right Whale to a burial spot soon after it was declared dead by veterinarians, on Itapiruba Sul beach in Santa Catarina State, Brazil on Sept. 11, 2010. Veterinarians euthanized the whale, which measures nearly 52 feet long and weighs between 40 and 50 tons.
This picture reminded me of the old story below. Believe me, you’re gonna want to watch this video. KATU aired this higher-quality, abridged report on the Exploding Whale in 2002. The original news report first appeared on KATU Channel 2 in Portland, OR, in Nov. 1970.
Maxi Jonas / Reuters
A rare albino Southern Right Whale calf surfaces off the coast of the Valdez Peninsula in Argentina's Patagonia region September 13, 2010.
In case you were wondering: Moby Dick, the famous white whale of literature, was a sperm whale, not a right whale. Herman Melville describes the difference:
As in general shape the noble Sperm Whale’s head may be compared to a Roman war-chariot (especially in front, where it is so broadly rounded); so, at a broad view, the Right Whale’s head bears a rather inelegant resemblance to a gigantic galliot-toed shoe. Two hundred years ago an old Dutch voyager likened its shape to that of a shoemaker’s last. And in this same last or shoe, that old woman of the nursery tale with the swarming brood, might very comfortably be lodged, she and all her progeny.
Read the rest of Moby Dick's Chapter 75 here.
Dado Galdieri / AP
After being rescued, a pink dolphin (Inia Boliviensis) is transported by Colombian biologist Mariana Escobar and rescue worker team leader Runny Callau from the Pailas river to the Grande river in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, Sunday, Aug. 22 , 2010. According to Bolivian biologists, heavy sedimentation and droughts have cut the communication between the Amazonian Pailas and Grande rivers, leaving some 12 dolphins stranded on a drying pond of the Pailas river.
Koji Sasahara / AP
Wakayama Prefecture in western Japan. The ancient village has a long and complex relationship with the dolphin. In early September, the waters of this same cove will turn blood red, as it becomes a holding pen for the annual dolphin hunts.
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