Cetaceans

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. 

Whales sing loud enough that their songs travel through the ocean, but knowing the mechanics behind that has been a mystery.

Scientists now think they have an idea, and it's something not seen in other animals: A specialized voice box.

Experts say the discovery, while based on a study that is too tiny to be definitive, will direct future research into how whales communicate.

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.

Paleontologists in Egypt have unearthed an extinct species of whale that lived 41 million years ago when whale ancestors were just completing their move from land to sea.

The team has dubbed the species "Tutcetus rayanensis" after the Egyptian boy king Tutankhamun and the Wadi El-Rayan Protected Area in Egypt's Fayoum Oasis where the type specimen was found.

The last of nearly 100 whales that beached on the southwestern Australian coast were euthanized on July 26 after a second day of frantic, but unsuccessful efforts to rescue them, authorities said.

The pod of long-finned pilot whales stranded themselves on July 25 on Cheynes Beach east of the former whaling station of Albany in Western Australia state, south of the capital Perth.

Two dead dolphins have been found washed up along the shores of the southwestern province of Aydın's Kuşadası district.

The lifeless body of two dolphins washed ashore on the Nazilli Sitesi and Kocagöl beaches in Kuşadası. Following the examinations of the dolphins, it was determined that both of them were striped dolphins (Stenella coeruleoalba).

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 whale skull fossil estimated to be some 12 million years old has been found on a beach in the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland, according to a local museum.

The discovery was made in October by a Pennsylvania man, Cody Goddard, who was searching for fossils and shark's teeth, the Calvert Marine Museum said in a statement.

Hopes of saving a malnourished beluga whale that has swum up the Seine river were receding on Aug. 7, as rescuers said they were in a race against the clock to find a solution.

The whale was first spotted on Aug. 2 in the river that runs through Paris to the English Channel. Since Aug. 5 it has been between two locks some 70 kilometers (44 miles) north of the French capital.

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.