Centuries of over-exploitation of whales for their meat and blubber has seen populations of most species plummet. But with no small amount of irony, the tables have turned with research discovering that we need whales for a healthy marine ecosystem.

To mark the start of Japan's whaling season, workers in the coastal town of Minamiboso carved up one of the animals before a crowd of school children.

One of the rarest and best-loved whales in the world has been spotted off the coast of Australia, in what is believed to be the first sighting of the year.

A long weekend away turned out to be better than expected for one Auckland family who got up close and personal with orca whales near Kawau Island.

A long weekend away turned out to be better than expected for Andrea Hegan, who paddled alongside a number of orca whales near Kawau Island on Sunday.

It was a bizarre phenomenon that troubled researchers for decades – a mysterious under sea 'quacking' heard every winter and spring in the depths of the Southern Ocean.

Japan expects its whaling programme in the Southern Ocean will resume next year, court documents indicate.

Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully says government and activists should not be gloating about a court decision to halt Japan's whaling programme.

Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully warned against gloating about Japan's defeat this morning.

The anti-whaling ship Bob Barker has docked in Wellington harbour.

Attempts to help a 4m-long pilot whale which tried to beach itself at Kaka Point last night failed, with the whale eventually left to die on the rocks.

A Japanese whaling vessel reportedly tailed an anti-whaling ship close to Otago's coastline - inside New Zealand's exclusive economic zone - against the wishes of the NZ Government.

A Japanese whaling ship is reported to have tailed an anti-whaling ship into waters off Otago against the wishes of the NZ Govt, which labelled the move 'disrespectful'.

The resumption of so-called "scientific'' whaling in the Southern Ocean has been condemned by Foreign Affairs Minister Murray McCully.

Australia will be monitoring Japan's whale hunt from the air instead of the sea in a decision both the Greens and whaling protesters have called a broken election promise.

A 12-year-old boy has made an impassioned plea to politicians to do more to stop whaling by the Japanese in the Southern Ocean.

WARNING: GRAPHIC CONTENT. A dead sperm whale has exploded after stranding on a beach in the Faroe Islands in the North Atlantic.

Paul Watson, founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, testified in a contempt of court hearing in Seattle.

A Kiwi diver was dragged behind a humpback whale as he tried to free it from a tangle of commercial fishing gear in Fijian waters.

A dead humpback whale spotted off the Timaru coast about two weeks ago has now washed up on the boulder beach between the sea and Lake Wainono, near Waimate.

New Zealand has accused Japan of treating the whaling convention as "an industry cartel" during an international court battle against whaling.

The International Court of Justice will hear arguments from New Zealand this week that Japan is breaking its agreement to hunt whales in the Antarctic only for scientific purposes.

A New Zealand surfer remembers seeing the eye and skin barnacles of a huge whale before it flung him 3m into the air.

A survey to work out how many humpback whales migrate through Cook Strait is to end today.