AWI Quarterly Articles | Marine Wildlife

Up until recently, it was thought that only two species of bottlenose dolphins existed—the Indo-Pacific and the common bottlenose. But recent DNA tests performed by researchers at Australia’s Macquarie and Monash Universities have revealed a...

Out of 337 manatee carcasses recovered in Florida last year, 101 were very young calves, compared to the 59 dead calves found in 2007. Though reasons for this increase are unknown, more manatees are also...

by Mark J. Palmer The Animal Welfare Institute (AWI), Earth Island Institute (EII) and a coalition of supportive groups have been crying foul since the government of Mexico demanded late in October that the World...

The World Beneath: The Life and Times of Unknown Sea Creatures and Coral Reefs, by Dr. Richard Smith, is a fascinating description of the aquatic life in coral environments. Smith’s engaging narratives concerning a multitude...

Beneath the surface of Hawaii’s blue ocean waters, Wild Me and Hawaiian Hawksbill Conservation are using photographs and computer vision technology to help protect Hawaiian hawksbill sea turtles.

In 2016, AWI and other groups petitioned to have the subspecies listed as endangered under the US Endangered Species Act. Our petition was granted, and the listing was finalized by the National Marine Fisheries Service...

A study recently published in Royal Society Open Science, however, indicates that protections afforded humpback whales over the past half century have helped reverse the decline. The study authors predict that this population may be...

A recent poll co-funded by AWI and other animal protection and conservation organizations paints a bleak picture for the Norwegian whaling industry’s future. Only 4 percent of Norwegians surveyed said they ate whale meat “often.”

As whales go about the business of being whales—feeding, defecating, migrating, and breeding—they provide vital ecological services to the planet. This includes fertilizing the plankton that provide half of all oxygen on Earth and sequestering...

Mystic Aquarium in Mystic, Connecticut, has long displayed beluga whales and conducted extensive research on them. However, the facility has now embroiled itself in a controversial request to import five captive-born belugas from Marineland in...