On Monday, at 8pm, Bandra resident Benedict Suarez noticed a blood-stained carcass of a dolphin at the Bandstand promenade. Suarez, who is a member of the citizen’s group Eagle Brigade, informed local corporator Asif Zakaria who, in turn, alerted the civic officials about the dead dolphin.

Efforts to protect the North Atlantic right whale have gone high-tech with the creation of an iPad/iPhone application that can warn mariners when they approach an area where the highly endangered mammals are congregating.

The Whale Alert app, available for free download, uses global positioning system and other technology to send the latest data about right whale detections, overlaid on National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) digital charts, to the user's device.

Efforts to protect the North Atlantic right whale have gone high-tech with the creation of an iPad/iPhone application that can warn mariners when they approach an area where the highly endangered mammals are congregating.

The Whale Alert app, available for free download, uses global positioning system and other technology to send the latest data about right whale detections, overlaid on National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) digital charts, to the user's device.

WELLINGTON, New Zealand: A mass-stranding of whales on a New Zealand beach has left 36 of the creatures dead and threatens 40 more. Department of conservation area manager John Mason said 99 pilot whales stranded themselves on day on Farewell Spit on the South Island. By Tuesday, 36 whales had died and another 40 remained stranded and were still in danger.

As has become almost routine in recent years, Japan’s annual whale hunt that began this week has kicked off to swirling controversy.

But this year, onlookers are not only taking issue with the whaling expedition itself, but how extra funding for the trip is being drawn from money intended to be used for reconstruction efforts from the March 11 disasters.

More than 60 pilot whales died in a mass stranding at a remote New Zealand beach, conservation officials said yesterday.

Tourists found the pod of 61 beached whales on Monday at Farewell Spit, on the top of the South Island, the Department of Conservation said.

18 whales remained alive till early yesterday and DOC staff decided to euthanize them, rather than prolong their suffering.

Pilot whales up to six metres long are the most common species of whale in New Zealand waters.

New Zealand has warned it faces its worst maritime environmental disaster after a stricken container ship off the nation’s coast sustained further damage and spewed up to 350 tonnes of oil into the Bay of Plenty.

The Liberian-flagged Rena, which ran aground on the Astrolabe Reef last week, issued a mayday call on Tuesday after it shifted position as it was pounded by swells of up to 5 metres. All crew on board the vessel have been evacuated.

Preserving just 4 percent of the ocean could protect crucial habitat for the vast majority of marine mammal species, from sea otters to blue whales, according to researchers at Stanford University and the National Autonomous University of Mexico.

Their findings were published in the Aug. 16 edition of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Of the 129 species of marine mammals on Earth, including seals, dolphins and polar bears, approximately one-quarter are facing extinction, the study said.