Whaling is the organized pursuit, capture, and killing of cetaceans (primarily baleen and toothed whales) for their biological products, including meat, blubber, and oil, and is analyzed across ecological, regulatory, and socio-economic research domains. As a topic, it encompasses industrial extraction technologies, population-level impacts on whale stocks, trophic and biogeochemical consequences of reduced cetacean biomass, and the development and enforcement of international management regimes such as moratoria and quota systems. Research on whaling further addresses monitoring methodologies (e.g., population modeling, genetic stock identification) and evaluates compliance, conservation outcomes, and transitions toward non-lethal use such as whale watching.
A unique collection of prehistoric bowhead whale bones, dating back 11,000 years, reveals a previously untold story of the relative impacts of humans on nature. The time series of ancient fossils show that commercial hunting ...
Molecular & Computational biology
Mar 17, 2026
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19
From whale songs to lion roars, animals have evolved to stretch their voices across distances so that friends—and sometimes foes—can hear them. Each sound is coded with messages like "Come here!" "Back off!" "Danger's lurking!" ...
Evolution
Mar 10, 2026
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16
New research from the University of St Andrews published in Current Biology has shown that the role of age in male humpback whale reproduction has changed as populations recover from centuries of exploitation. Whaling drove ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 27, 2026
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124
The U.S.'s ocean regulator plans to make industry-friendly changes to a longstanding rule designed to protect vanishing whales, prompting criticism from environmental groups who cite the recent death of an endangered whale.
Ecology
Feb 15, 2026
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28
For decades, southern right whales have been celebrated as one of conservation's success stories.
Plants & Animals
Feb 11, 2026
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10
The tide has turned on the conservation success story of the southern right whale. Once considered a global conservation success story, the species is now emerging as a warning signal of how climate change is impacting threatened ...
Plants & Animals
Feb 11, 2026
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37
When University of Southern Denmark whale researcher Olga Filatova set off on her first field trip in 2000, she spent five years looking for whales before she saw a humpback.
Plants & Animals
Dec 1, 2025
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53
The critically endangered North Atlantic right whale population has ticked up again, according to local researchers who say they're "cautiously optimistic" about the species.
Plants & Animals
Oct 22, 2025
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24
After coming back from the brink of extinction, Southern right whales are swimming in greater numbers off the coast of Argentina's Patagonia this year, delighting tourists seeking to catch a glimpse of their acrobatics.
Plants & Animals
Oct 6, 2025
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26
The number of whales getting tangled up in fishing nets, line, buoys and other miscellaneous rope off the coasts of the United States hit a record high in 2024, with California taking the ignominious lead.
Plants & Animals
Sep 26, 2025
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