Earlier this week, our crew on the Esperanza awoke to find themselves surrounded by at least 50 humpback whales feeding in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary. Leandra, our on-board scientist, captured some rare and unique underwater sounds as part of our ongoing research program.

Whales were the economic drivers of the 1850s. So important was this resource that the founder of the U.S. Oceanographic Office, Matthew Fontaine Maury, created a map showing the worldwide distribution of sperm and right whales in 1851.

A fossilized whale skeleton excavated 20 years ago amid the stench and noise of a seabird and elephant seal rookery on California's Aсo Nuevo Island turns out to be the youngest example on the Pacific coast of a fossil whale fall and the first in California, according to University of California, Berkeley, paleontologists.

Gray whales in the Pacific Ocean, long thought to have fully recovered from whaling, were once three to five times as plentiful as they are now, according to a report to be published September 10 in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Orcas or killer whales may continue to suffer the effects of contamination with polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) for the next 30 – 60 years, despite 1970s-era regulations that have reduced overall PCB concentrations in the environment, researchers in Canada report.

Shows at family adventure parks featuring Shamu — an orca or killer whale — have made these gigantic mammals one of the most famous marine animals. Shamu’s wild brothers and sisters, however, face many threats to their survival in the open ocean.

Behind the sailor's lore of fearsome battles between sperm whale and giant squid lies a deep question of evolution: How did these leviathans develop the underwater sonar needed to chase and catch squid in the inky depths?

In a setback to the whaling industry worldwide, Iceland's fisheries minister has just announced he will not issue further commercial whale-hunting quotas.

Subsistence whaling has sustained Alaska native communities for centuries and renewal of their five-year bowhead whale quota is crucial. The meeting convened amid heightened security for the first annual gathering held in the United States in almost two decades.

Representatives from more than 70 nations will convene May 28th through June 1st, 2007 in Anchorage, Alaska for the 59th meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) to decide whether a 1986 global moratorium on whaling should be lifted, allowing whales to be hunted commercially.

Scientists are full of optimism after the wounded whales, the mother and the calf, had 39 km of successful swim in 24 hours to the Pacific.

Donated product will be used to speed healing of whales' wounds, strengthening them for trip to Pacific Ocean