The Institute of Cetacean Research can be found in a nondescript white-brick office building in Tokyo's port district. Down a hallway and through an unmarked door is a small lobby with a model ship, a poster showing various whale species, and a sign that reads "Keep Out". Japan says the research that goes on behind the locked security door is crucial for studying whale populations, but critics slam the practice as a loophole to get around an international ban on commercial whaling.

An Australian-led group of scientists has for the first time tracked down and tagged Antarctic blue whales by using acoustic technology to follow its songs, the government said Wednesday. The blue whale, the largest animal on the planet, is rarely spotted in the Southern Ocean but a group of intrepid researchers were able to locate and tag some of the mammals after picking up on their deep and complex vocals.

Whales that beach themselves in large groups are not all members of the same family, a study has found, undermining long-held assumptions about the cause of mass strandings. An international team of scientists studied 12 mass strandings in Australia and New Zealand to examine the theory that healthy whales beach themselves while trying to help sick or disorientated family members who have run aground. After examining the DNA of 490 whales they concluded the so-called "caregiving model" did not stand up, as most of the whales were not related.

Twenty killer whales died and 25 others were rescued after becoming stranded along the Strait of Magellan by an unusually low tide, Chile's National Fishing Service said Tuesday. Fishermen and Chilean navy personnel struggled to save the orcas after they ran into trouble near Susan, a village on the strait that links the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans at the southern tip of South America, officials said.