Whales

Scientists find eastern Australian humpback whales benefited from a reduction in human activity on the ocean during the first year of the pandemic, recording lower levels of the stress hormone cortisol. 

With distinctive characteristics, Split Fin and Bent Tip are part of an orca family that has thrilled South Coast residents since being spotted more than 20 years ago.

The group says it reported the distressed whale in waters off the Sunshine Coast to authorities but when no-one had arrived almost an hour later, they took action fearing it was "drowning".

A distressed humpback whale tangled in a huge mass of fishing equipment has been freed after a major rescue effort off the Gippsland coast in Victoria. 

Two beluga whales faced a gruelling journey across Ukraine's war-ravaged region of Kharkiv to reach their new home in Spain.

Animal rights activists have described the decision to kill 128 fin whales as inhumane after the Iceland government issued a licence to a fin whaling company.

Marine rescue authorities are searching waters near Port Macquarie for the whale, which is the fourth to have been entangled off the northern NSW coast this holiday weekend.

Whales have been spotted in New South Wales' Tweed River as whales begin their northern migration to warmer waters.

Environmental advocates renew calls for the state to remove shark nets during whale migration season after a humpback is freed from a tangle off the Sunshine Coast.

Tourists and locals were thrilled to see a humpback whale close to the shoreline at Victor Harbor last weekend but a marine biologist says the animal was very unwell and may have been injured.

A group of at least 15 orcas off the coast of Spain have sunk seven boats over the past four years. The origin of this new behaviour has baffled scientists, though the leading theory suggests they're following a "social fad".

Japan proposes a plan to allow the hunting of large fin whales around its coast, sparking backlash from environmental groups. 

Two weeks have passed since the latest mass stranding event in Western Australia in which 31 pilot whales died, but marine experts want to see the conversation around these events change.

Having waited years for a new calf at Ningaloo Reef, researchers say the sight of a new baby killer whale is especially good news after several calves were lost on WA's northern coast.

Pods of orcas are arriving at the Ningaloo Reef for winter, including the first calf seen in the area in three years.

Scientists have undertaken seven voyages totalling more than 100,000 kilometres and eight months at sea to build the most up-to-date snapshot of Antarctic blue whale distribution.

Dr Brian Miller says his research team is detecting traces of blue whales around their historical feeding ground more often.  

For three decades, the public has been helping scientists log sightings of killer whales along Australia's south-east coast, providing vital data for research into the apex predators.

A former senator and a Greens politician want answers after a whale and two dolphins died three days after SA Water completed a seismic survey at Port Lincoln.

The orca known for working alongside human whalers has been given a "lively" new exhibit that museum curators hope pays better homage to its legacy.

A skeleton of a famous orca known as "Old Tom" has been given a new look, with a south coast museum sprucing up the display, through a painstaking operation.

Authorities are monitoring pods of whales off WA's south-west coast to ensure they do not return to the beach, after most of those involved in a mass stranding at Geographe Bay near Dunsborough swam back out to sea.

The Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA) says 26 whales have died in a beaching event which stranded more than 100 animals.

Western Australia's largest mass whale stranding event occurred in 1996 at Dunsborough, and involved 320 animals.

Authorities are rushing to save between 50 and 100 whales stranded at a beach in Dunsborough in WA's south-west.