This is a National Geographic video about blue whales.
From Reuters:
Ban all whale hunting, says Tutu
28/11/2008 08:02 – (SA)
Wendell Roelf
Cape Town – Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu launched a new global anti-whaling campaign on Thursday, which seeks to ban all whaling.
“What makes it even worse is the brutality (of whale hunting),” said Tutu, a Nobel peace laureate, at the launch.
The International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), which backs the campaign, says whales are usually hunted with grenade-tipped harpoons that explode inside the animal.
The world imposed a moratorium on all whale hunts in 1986 after many species were driven towards extinction by decades of exploitation for meat, oil and whalebone.
Japan, Norway and Iceland still hunt minke whales, arguing they are plentiful.
The campaign has other high profile supporters including British actor Pierce Brosnan.
From New Scientist:
Chief medical officers of the Faroe Islands have recommended that pilot whales no longer be considered fit for human consumption, because they are toxic – as revealed by research on the Faroes themselves.
The remote Atlantic islands, situated between Scotland and Iceland, have been one of the last strongholds of traditional whaling, with thousands of small pilot whales killed every year, and eaten by most Faroese.
Anti-whaling groups have long protested, but the Faroese argued that whaling is part of their culture – an argument adopted by large-scale whalers in Japan and Norway.
But today in a statement to the islanders, chief medical officers Pál Weihe and Høgni Debes Joensen announced that pilot whale meat and blubber contains too much mercury, PCBs and DDT derivatives to be safe for human consumption.
Endangered Hector’s dolphins being mutilated in New Zealand: here.
Greenpeace protest against whaling and Human Rights breaches: here.
Ocean noise poses grave threat to marine mammals: here.
Navy sonar at whale birthing area worries some: here.
Blue and Sperm whale sightings off southern Sri Lanka: here.
NOAA researchers: Blue whales re-establishing former migration patterns: here.
Brazil declares whole coastline as a whale and dolphin sanctuary: here.
Possible new population of North Atlantic Right whales discovered off Greenland: here.
Blue Whale Discovered Singing In New York Coastal Waters: here.
Southern right whales: here.
Japanese dolphin slaughter video: here.
Dear Kitty. Some blog 
Dutch minister criticizes Japanese dolphin hunt
http://www.chinaview.cn 2008-12-03 23:59:39
BRUSSELS, Dec. 3 (Xinhua) — Dutch Agriculture Minister Gerda Verburg has written to the Japanese ambassador to the Netherlands to protest the cruel annual slaughter of dolphins off the southern coast of Japan, Dutch paper De Volkskrant reported Wednesday.
Such practice is unethical and should be halted, the minister said in the letter. The letter was sent at the request of the Dutch parliament, the report said.
Japan has for years been under fire from animal activists who are appalled at the dolphin hunt in the shallow bays along the Japanese coast.
In her letter Verburg referred to the fishing village of Taiji in the south of Japan, where fishermen kill around 2,000 dolphins every autumn.
According to the paper, the hunt has been a tradition in Taiji for 400 years. The fishermen drive the animals onto the coast by beating undersea metal poles with hammers, and then kill the dolphins with spears and knives.
The Japanese embassy said it was familiar with the criticism from European countries. “Our ministry of fisheries is already trying to teach these fishermen a better way of catching dolphins,” an embassy staff member was quoted by De Volkskrant as saying.
Dolphin meat is sold in Japanese supermarkets. According to the Japanese authorities, dolphin hunting is not covered by the agreements of the International Whaling Commission banning whale hunting.
Editor: Yan
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Counting Med dolphins from the air
Researchers on the lookout for striped dolphin and fin whale
(ANSA) – Rome, January 16 – A special airplane will be circling the skies off the northwestern Italian coast in coming days, as the country’s first winter census of whales and dolphins gets under way.
The plane, launched by the Tethys Cetacean Monitoring Institute and financed by the environment ministry, will scan kilometres of sea in a large protected area.
The aim is to create a detailed picture of the types of cetaceans to be found in the area over winter, including their numbers and feeding grounds. Although there are far fewer sightings of cetaceans in winter than in summer, researchers are optimistic about two species in particular, which have traditionally made regular appearances throughout the year. The conspicuous markings of the striped dolphin, with its dark back and white or pink belly, make it easy to spot, particularly as it tends to move in large groups, while the fin whale is renowned for its size. Usually clocking in at around 18 metres, the fin whale is the largest mammal in the Mediterranean and the second largest whale in the world.
Tethys Institute Vice-President Simone Panigada explained why researchers had taken the decision to carry out the census using a small plane. ”Boats are usually used to monitor cetaceans but planes are less dependent on weather conditions and will allow us to gather data quickly, going out just a few days when the weather and sea conditions are favourable and visibility good,” he said. The aircraft has been equipped with special ‘bubble’ windows, to allow researchers to observe the waters below. Its small size means it will make little noise, so as not to scare off the animals being counted. ”We will monitor the entire protected area, meaning the waters off the Ligurian and Tuscan coast and around the islands of Corsica and Sardinia,” Panigada added. The census is the latest in a series of Italian studies and initiatives aimed at safeguarding dolphins, whales and other marine life. The area researchers will monitor is part of a much larger zone of water set aside as the Mediterranean’s only marine mammal sanctuary in 2007. It has long had a natural cetaceous population far greater than elsewhere in the Mediterranean, prompting Italy to formally propose the idea of a sanctuary in 1998.
The sanctuary, which stretches for more than 10 square kilometres in international waters, is a joint initiative between Italy, France and Monaco but is headquartered in Genoa.
As well as fishing and shipping restrictions, the governments concerned are also seeking to monitor and limit pollution levels through a series of public and private initiatives.
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