whales

The leading environmental groups in Russia launched a lawsuit on Friday against the gas and oil giant, Exxon, for threatening the world's last Gray Whale population. There are only around 130 of this amazing species left in the world, and the pipeline that will be constructed in their habitat may hurt these numbers even further.

The Russian government has already approved the plans for the pipeline, but this lawsuit will hopefully cause some sort of injunction against the building of this pipeline.  » read more

On August 2, two anti-whaling activists, one Australian and the other British, approached a Japanese whaling ship while on a whaling hunt. Their objective was to deliver a letter to the ship informing them that what they were doing defied international agreements. However, these two men could never have guessed at the welcome they received. They were immediately seized, tied to the rail and then the mast (in Arctic waters), and kept captive for nearly three days before an Australian ship came to retrieve them.  » read more

The International Whaling Commission gathered in Santiago, Chile on Monday for their week long meeting to discuss the future of commercial whaling. Some member countries are strongly opposed to whale hunting (Australia is a leader in this camp). Other nations, such as Japan, strongly support commercial whaling.

In 1986, the commission imposed a worldwide moratorium on all commercial whaling. One loophole was included: A 'small' number of whales could be killed for research purposes. » read more