Cetacea

A six-year program to record and protect nine emblematic, but also vulnerable species of the Greek marine fauna was launched a few days ago with the participation of educational and research institutions and environmental organizations.

The European program called "LIFE MareNatura - conservation of marine megafauna species in Greece and Italy" has a budget of 11 million euros. 

According to estimates, the initial length of the large fin whale spotted by the fisherman was estimated at 15 metres and its weight at 40 tonnes

The sight of a humpback whale in the Mediterranean is rare. Just 45 have been spotted, photographed and recorded over the past decades.

Greenpeace has urged the government to abandon a deep-sea gas exploration project in the Mediterranean, citing newly published research to argue that its impact on endangered whales and dolphins would be greater than previously believed.

A group of researchers conducting marine studies on whales and dolphins in Türkiye has warned that all of the dolphin species in the Mediterranean are endangered, as their population is in a "vulnerable situation."

Greece is to establish the first National Coordinated Network of Observing and Managing Stranded Wildlife, the Environment Ministry stated on Monday, following an agreement with environmental and scientific organizations.

A beluga whale stranded in the river Seine in northern France for more than a week was removed from the water early yesterday in the first stage of an ambitious rescue operation to return it to the sea.

A beluga whale that swam up France's Seine river appears to be underweight and officials are worried about its health, regional authorities said.

The protected species, usually found in cold Arctic waters, had made its way up the waterway and reached a lock some 70 kilometres (44 miles) from Paris.

Vaquita porpoises are on the edge of extinction, with just 10 left in their sole habitat within Mexico's Gulf of California.

However, a new study published in the journal Science offers some hope: the world's rarest marine mammals aren't doomed by a lack of genetic diversity, and can recover if illegal "gillnet" fishing ceases immediately.

False killer whales, generally found in tropical and temperate waters of major oceans, have been spotted in northern Aegean Sea for the first time in 25 years.
Eight false killer whales floating in open sea some 6 miles away from Imbros island were recorded by a fisherman.