The Commerce Department has agreed to delay implementation of its new, weaker rules governing the dolphin safe tuna label, pending the outcome of a lawsuit filed against the regulations by environmental groups.

In what was hailed as a “great day for whales,” a federal judge in San Francisco this week blocked the start of a sonar research project that conservation groups said would have disoriented gray whales migrating up the California coast.

A 10-metre-long endangered Sei whale that became stranded on a Gulf of Mexico sandbar has died, despite efforts by residents to rescue the beached mammal. Full Sto

The number of Brydes whales found dead in New Zealand waters is disturbing conservationists.

Rescuers pushing and dragging whales managed to refloat 39 members of a beached pod during high tide Wednesday as dozens of other whales lay dead on a remote island off southern New Zealand, officials said.

A potentially life-saving “whale radar” is being tested in a sea lane near the Canary Islands in which as many as 10 whales are killed each year by collisions with ships.

Whalemeat recipes from New Zealand listed on a pro-whaling website have angered the Greens, who say references to New Zealand should be removed. Full Story<

The United States will allow Mexican tuna to be sold in the United States under the “dolphin-safe” label, ending a 12-year trade conflict, the Mexican Foreign Ministry said.

The RSPCA is calling for urgent action from the government and EU to prevent the deaths of hundreds of dolphins and porpoises in commercial fishing nets off the South West coast every year.

Two groups of US biologists say they have detected a consistent pattern of response by wild species to warmer temperatures. Full Story