Southern Ocean

The Japanese government has confirmed that they have abandoned plans to kill humpback whales in the Southern Ocean this season.

Japan's first ‘scientific’ whaling program, called JARPA, spent 18 years and killed 6,778 minke whales attempting to determine the natural mortality rate, M. In 2006 an expert workshop of scientists from the International Whaling Commission, meeting in Tokyo, agreed (including the Japanese scientists) that the natural mortality rate was not determined - the confidence limits around estimates of M from JARPA data were so wide that M remains effectively unknown. These were so wide that even a value of M=0 was not excluded.

Greenpeace have launched the Great Whale Trail, following the migration of humpback whales from the warm tropical waters of the South Pacific, where they breed, to the icy Southern Ocean around Antarctica, where they feed. And they're doing it via satellite tracking and Google Maps. Nifty.