A mysterious outbreak of dolphin beachings is baffling wildlife experts in Massachusetts.

THE internet has emerged as one of the greatest threats to rare species, fuelling the illegal wildlife trade and making it easier to buy everything from live baby lions to wine made from tiger bones, conservationists said yesterday.

Australia’s prime minister has set a November deadline for Japan to stop its research whaling programme that kills hundreds of the creatures every year in Antarctic waters, or face legal action.

Conservation groups called today for Japan’s whaling fleet to turn back as the first ship set sail for the annual hunt in the Southern Ocean.

Divers searched the icy waters of the Gulf of St Lawrence for a missing seal hunter today after recovering the bodies of three other hunters from a fishing boat that capsized as it was being towed by a coast guard ship.

Two anti-whaling activists were still on board a Japanese ship today as protesters continued to shadow its hunting fleet.

DOZENS of endangered orang-utans have been driven from their jungle habitat because of forest-clearing fires raging across Indonesia, campaigners warned yesterday.

ICELAND has broken a global moratorium on commercial whaling, killing an endangered fin whale for the first time since the 1980s.

THE International Whaling Commission (IWC) has entered unknown territory after a majority of members resolved to overturn the moratorium on commercial whaling.

The 20-year-old ban on commercial whaling remained intact today, but the International Whaling Commission entered unknown territory after a majority of its members voted to overturn the moratorium.

Japan and other pro-whaling nations will today try to rebound from two early defeats to win a majority at the International Whaling Commission’s annual meeting and pave the way for commercial whale hunting, which was banned 20 years ago.

Sealers took to the thawing ice floes off the Atlantic Ocean today, the first day of Canada’s contentious seal hunt, which animal rights activist claim is barbaric and not economically worth the bad publicity.

IN just a few weeks, the largest slaughter of marine mammals is set to begin on the ice off Canada's east coast. Over 300,000 seals, mostly pups, will be bludgeoned or shot to death for their fur.

Vast quantities of wildlife products and live animals are being traded illegally on the internet, according to the results of an investigation out today.

Countries that oppose the two-decade moratorium on commercial whale hunts fought for the upper hand at an annual whaling meeting in Ulsan, South Korea, pushing a proposal to back limited commercial hunts.

Thousands of sealers armed with clubs, rifles and spears have descended on the ice floes off eastern Canada for the world’s largest seal hunt.

Euro MPs overwhelmingly backed plans today to save the lives of thousands of dolphins and porpoises trapped in fishing nets every year.

ANIMAL welfare campaigners yesterday criticised the killing of Iceland’s first whale in 14 years.

Twenty-four pilot whales have died in Massachusetts after becoming beached for a second time, frustrating the efforts of rescuers who had battled to return them to the ocean.

Rescuers have given up on efforts to save over forty pilot whales stranded on a beach around Cape Cod in America.

Rescuers tonight gave up extraordinary efforts to save more than 40 pilot whales that became beached in Cape Cod for a second time in two days, saying too many were sick or in shock from the ordeal.

Pierce Brosnan has attacked Japan's plans to return to full-time commercial whaling.