Whales

Commercial whaling killed nearly 3 million whales in the 20th century, reducing many global populations by up to 90%. The International Whaling Commission set a ban on commercial hunting in 1986, allowing numbers to slowly climb. Every whaling nation agreed to the ban at that time. However, Norway resumed commercial whaling in 1993, Iceland in 2006, and Japan in 2019.

President Trump has complained extensively about environmental harms to whales posed by offshore windfarms, saying wind turbines are “driving them crazy” and leading to whale deaths up and down the Atlantic coast. However, both federal agencies and independent scientists have found no causal link between offshore wind development and whale deaths.

The Best of Our Knowledge explores topics on learning, education and research.New research gives a more accurate picture of the lifespan of whales. And some whales may live longer than previously thought.And scientists have located a mysterious, repeating source of radio waves from far across space.

The whale population is center stage in the latest book by Ryan Tucker Jones, 'Red Leviathan: The Secret History of Soviet Whaling.'

Acclaimed writers Madeleine Thien and Peter Ho Davies join us this week to share their stories of Chinese heritage and the human experience. Thien’s…

We can learn a great deal from the analysis of the ear wax of whales.In today’s Academic Minute, Dr. Stephen Trumble, associate professor of biology at…