A passenger, Emma, says a routine fast-ferry trip near Hammerfest turned dramatic when the vessel struck a whale; the whale was visibly injured with blood in the water.

Sea surface temperatures around the UK have been the warmest start to the year on record, driving unusual species like bluefin tuna, octopus and mauve stinger jellyfish into British and Irish waters. Irish waters have cooled since a May marine heatwave but remain above average in the east and south.

A polar bear was spotted traveling on an ice floe near the Hornstrandir peninsula in the Westfjords of Iceland.

A polar bear was shot and killed on Blomstrandhalvøya, Svalbard, after it threatened a group of residents; the Governor of Svalbard has launched an investigation and the four-year-old male bear was taken to Longyearbyen for examination.

A young male humpback whale calf was discovered dead drifting near Sandy Beach in Gastineau Channel and towed by U.S. Coast Guard and NOAA officials to undergo a necropsy.

Water levels in the Caspian Sea have fallen to more than 29 meters below the Baltic Sea reference point, a historic low, exposing large areas of seabed in the northern region and threatening its ecosystems.

A whale carcass washed ashore just outside the settlement of Vogar on the Vatnsleysuströnd coast this afternoon. A marine biologist suggests that altered fish migration patterns, a consequence of climate change, are likely responsible for the higher number of strandings observed.

A minke whale stranded on MacDonald Spit near Seldovia for six hours on July 17 but refloated with the rising tide and swam back into Kachemak Bay; the Seldovia Village Tribe suspects a toxic algal bloom disoriented the whale.

A rapid, multi-agency response is underway on St. George Island, Alaska, to investigate a multispecies mortality event linked to a harmful algal bloom, with concerns that paralytic shellfish poison (PSP) toxins may be affecting local wildlife and human health.

The Kachemak Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve detected Pseudo-nitzschia at bloom levels in Kachemak Bay starting July 4. This diatom can produce the toxin domoic acid, associated with amnesic shellfish poisoning, though toxin production is not yet confirmed. Observed bird deaths and marine mammal strandings have spurred collection of mussel samples for lab testing.

A solitary beluga whale has been sighted in Norway’s Oslofjord and later in Sunnhordland, far south of its normal Arctic range. Researchers say the animal appears healthy but is likely separated from its group and urge people to keep their distance.

Dozens of pilot whales were stranded in Ólafsfjörður on June 21, but ICE-SAR teams managed to refloat them and guide them safely back to open water.

When the Smyril Line ferry Norrøna arrived at Seyðisfjørður harbor in Iceland on June 19, crew and port officials discovered a large whale lodged across its bow, likely having been dead or mortally injured before impact.

This season’s minke whales caught in the Barents Sea are notably underweight, with experienced whalers and marine scientists observing unusually thin blubber layers and visible ribs.

Rescue teams in Reykjavík will make a second, high-tide effort this evening to nudge an orca stranded since Tuesday night in the shallow cove of the Grafarvogur neighbourhood back into open waters.

RÚV received a video this week that shows a whale just off the beach at Reynisfjara; the second time in about a week. Guðjón Már Sigurðsson, marine biologist and cetacean expert at the Icelandic Marine Research Institute, says the whale swims shallow in a search for food.

A die-off last year at St. Paul Island, the first compelling case of fatal saxitoxin poisoning in marine mammals, comes as more harmful algae is found farther north

Testing confirmed widespread exposure of saxitoxin in marine mammals and other wildlife. In the study, researchers collected and analyzed data from 10 dead northern fur seals and hundreds of dead, mostly benthic, fish that washed ashore on a popular beachcombing beach on St. Paul Island in August 2024.

“Last year we got several reports from tourists and scientists that they saw around six walruses dead here on the west side of Svalbard. Unfortunately, we couldn’t sample them as the dead walruses drifted away by the time we got to the place. But it’s not normal to get so many reported dead walruses in such a small area," said Christian Lydersen, senior scientist at the Norwegian Polar Institute. Now samples (collected by a Station Manager in July 2023) have tested positive for highly pathogenic avian influenza.

A polar bear was shot in Ittoqqortoormiit after being spotted wandering the streets, marking the second such incident in the town within a week.