Background Articles

North Pacific right whales, once numbering in the tens of thousands, swam throughout the Bering Sea until they were nearly wiped out by commercial hunters. Now the Eastern North Pacific right whale population is estimated to total about 30 individuals, and its habitat is believed to be concentrated in the southeastern corner of the Bering Sea.

A heated and packed meeting of the Akranes Trade Union took place in the town last night. The municipality has strongly protested the decision of the Minister of Food to suspend this year's whaling licence.

Landmark report says invasive species are major threat to biodiversity and dealing with them requires global cooperation

Seals are typically resilient and adaptable to their environment, but a new study found that rapid warming in the past decade is causing a rampant physical decline in seals and their pups.

Researchers looked inside the stomachs of 34 spotted seals that were collected in Gambell and Shishmaref in 2012 and 2020. Of those, 33 contained microplastics.

Since 2020, members of a small group of killer whales have rammed into at least 673 vessels off the coasts of Portugal, Spain and Morocco — causing some to sink. The Spanish and Portuguese governments responded by tasking a group of experts with determining what was causing the whales to strike rudders, which are used to steer ships, and how to stop it.

Biologists were able to collect valuable data on these rare animals during a special whale survey in August.

Rising temperatures and dwindling oxygen levels are decimating marine species. But humanity can avert mass die-offs by curbing fossil fuel use and other planet-warming activities.

The Minister of Food has temporarily suspended planned whaling until August 31. A new report stated that of the 148 whales killed, 36 were shot more than once. Five were shot three times, and four whales on four separate occasions. One whale with a harpoon in its flesh was chased for five hours without success.

In recent years, polar bears in the Beaufort Sea have had to travel far outside of their traditional arctic hunting grounds which has contributed to an almost 30% decrease in their population.

Deprived of once plentiful seagrass, more than 900 have died this year. Some experts contend they were taken off the endangered species list prematurely.

Canada’s Western Hudson Bay polar bear population has fallen 27 percent in just five years, according to a government report released last week, suggesting climate change is impacting the animals.

The specific "medical" smell of whale meat may be caused by liver disease or the animals' diet. Chukchi Sea hunters began noticing the pungent, unpleasant smell in some whales about 20 years ago. Recently, the number of stinky whales has increased. Scientists with Beringia National Park analyzed the isotopic composition in 46 samples of gray whales. “Stinky” whales had significantly lower levels of heavy nitrogen. Scientists still must understand whether this is a result of liver disease or a diet based on algae. Scientists hope to study more high-quality samples of “stinky” whales.

Q fever is a febrile illness caused by infection with the bacterium Coxiella burnetii. It is most often transmitted by inhalation of the bacteria after it is shed by infected livestock. The antibody prevalence in NFS samples from 2009 and 2011 (69%) was significantly higher than in 1994 (49%). The antibody prevalence of SSL samples from 2007 to 2011 was 59%. All NFS vaginal swabs were negative for C. burnetii, despite an 80% antibody prevalence in the matched sera. The significant increase in antibody prevalence in NFS from 1994 to 2011 suggests that the pathogen may be increasingly common or that there is marked temporal variation within the vulnerable NFS population.

The number of gray whales migrating along the Pacific Coast of North America has steadily declined by nearly 40 percent from a 2016 peak, and the population produced its fewest calves on record this year, according to U.S. research released on Friday.

The number of endangered beluga whales in Alaska’s Cook Inlet increased slightly the past four years, according to a new estimate by federal biologists.

The Institute of Tribal Environmental Professionals (ITEP) Tribes and Climate Change Program is publishing a report called the Status of Tribes and Climate C...

This study examines another mechanism of human impact on large species. If humans hunted a keystone species to a certain tipping point or extinction, they may have indirectly triggered a collapse of a complex ecosystem, leading to a chain reaction resulting in the extinction of other species. Since it is difficult to study ecosystems that existed thousands of years ago, the authors researched a more recent megafauna extinction event of the Steller’s sea cow in the mid-1700s, for which a few in person observations from Georg Steller exist.

A new research project is building a timeline of mercury levels in the Aleutian Islands over the last few thousand years.

Marine hunters of eastern Chukotka often encounter "stinky" whales whose meat is unsuitable for food. The situation has become a problem for local residents. Researchers from Moscow State University and the Beringia National Park believe they have found the causes of an unpleasant odor in animals.