A cruise ship in Alaska pulled into port in Vancouver with a rare fin whale stuck to its bow.

Princess Cruise Line officials said in a statement that they did not know when the ship struck the large whale and that the crew used whale-avoidance procedures while at sea.

Australians will take the lead in a wildlife conservation group's latest campaign against whale hunting in Antarctic waters when they man two ships that will confront Japanese whalers in December.

The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society announced Wednesday that its sixth campaign to defend the whales of the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary from Japanese poachers has been dubbed Operation Waltzing Mathilda after the Australian national anthem as its ships Steve Irwin and Earthrace will have mostly Australian crew.

Bangladesh's coastal waterways are home to the largest known population of the rare of Irrawaddy dolphin, a New York-based Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS) study said on Wednesday.

The WCS researchers estimate that nearly 6,000 Irrawaddy dolphins have been found living in freshwater regions of the country's Sundarbans forests at a time when the global population of this species was believed to be only in the hundreds.

Fishermen, volunteers and Philippine Coast Guard personnel all joined hands to assist the estimated over 330 melon-nosed dolphins stranded in Bataan province near the capital Manila on Tuesday.

Bataan Gov. Enrique Garcia, Jr. said residents in Mariveles, Bataas first reported seeing the huge number of beached dolphins at around 2:30 am.

Increased absorption of carbon dioxide from the earth's atmosphere could be increasing the acidity levels in the ocean, endangering sea life, including the giant squid, scientists from the University of Rhode Island said.

The animals' unique hunting patterns make them particularly susceptible to climate change, these researchers said.