NOAA and the U.S. Coast Guard worked together this 4th of July to free an entangled humpback whale in the Port of Valdez, Prince William Sound. The NOAA Fisheries Alaska Marine Mammal Stranding Hotline received numerous reports late afternoon on July 3. A young humpback whale was entangled in the middle of the Port […]
JUNEAU, Alaska – A Southeast Alaska man pleaded guilty today to one count of false labeling, a Lacey Act violation, and one count of illegally taking a sperm whale, an Endangered Species Act violation. According to court documents, Dugan Paul Daniels, 54, of Coffman Cove, knowingly submitted false records about his commercial fishing activities to […]
The call came in to NOAA’s Alaska Marine Mammal Stranding Network 24-hour hotline the morning of July 19. A whale-watching company near Ketchikan had spotted a humpback whale entangled in line and dragging unmarked buoys. NOAA’s Office of Law Enforcement in Ketchikan responded, verified the whale’s location in Blank Inlet on the south side of Gravina Island, […]
Even though they’re the largest animals on earth, whales remain difficult to track. So experts often turn to historical whaling data to inform current research. A dataset maintained by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) contains detailed information on commercial whale catches — more than 2.1 million records, predominantly from 1880 until the IWC banned whaling in 1986. Yet […]