A few decades ago, humpback whales were endangered, with only 10,000 of them left. But a global push for better protection has meant that whale watching, not whale hunting, is now a thriving industry. Every summer, the mammals travel to the warm swallow waters of the Gulf of Guinea and Madagascar to mate and give birth, before restarting their odyssey back to the Antarctic with their offspring. Our France 2 colleagues report from Gabon, with FRANCE 24's Camile Nedelec.

A stranded humpback whale is rescued alive off Argentina's Atlantic coast at the seaside resort of La Lucila del Mar, 360 kilometres south of Buenos Aires. The whale is one of two stranded whales saved by a team of 30 people including local residents, marine environmentalists, members of the Civil Defence, coastguard police, volunteer firefighters and beach lifeguards.

Coming across a dead whale might not seem like finding treasure, but for a group of Yemeni fishermen that’s exactly what it was. In the whale’s belly they found a lump of ambergris, a hugely valuable waxy substance used in the making of perfume.

A humpback whale is found dead on a beach along the Mediterranean in southern France, in what experts say was a rare incident.

It was unclear why the whale traveled nearly so far upstream. One witness described it as like "seeing a camel at the North Pole."

Workers from Israel's Nature and Parks Authority bury a 17-metre-long Fin whale, after it washed ashore, on Nitzanim beach near the city of Ashkelon. The rare appearance of the dead Fin whale was initially thought to have been connected to the tar pollution brought across the country's coastline last week by powerful winds and high waves. But Israel's Nature and Parks Authority said on February 19, that experts had determined that the decayed state of the whale, discovered on February 18, indicates that it had died some two weeks ago.

The Italian coastguard towed the carcass of a whale, thought to be one of the largest found in the Mediterranean, to the docks in Naples on Wednesday, after it was found near Sorrento on Sunday. The carcass of the huge cetacean was seen being recovered from the waters in the southern Italian city, after it was initially found when a distressed calf led the coast guard to the body. According to local reports, the cause of death remains unknown. An animal autopsy will reportedly be carried out.

A Dutch metro train, which was riding without any passengers, has been saved from disaster after it smashed through a safety barrier but was prevented from plummeting into water by a sculpture of a whale tail.

Whale songs are getting deeper

The tame beluga whale which appeared in Norwegian waters may have previously served as a child therapy animal in Russia, according to Fiskeribladet. There had been media speculation that the whale was a Russian navy spy.