AFP - The small dorsal fins on the huge, curving backs now regularly parting the winter seas just off Sydney symbolise a new front in the war against Japanese whaling.

AFP - Japanese consumers are increasingly snubbing whale meat despite their government's campaign to overturn an international ban on commercial whaling, a Japanese environmentalist has said.

Reuters - The Japanese public no longer likes eating whale meat and Tokyo's argument that whaling should be maintained to meet consumer demand is a fabrication, a conservationist group said on Tuesday.

AFP - New Zealand is still hopeful that moves by Japan to overturn a two decades old moratorium on commercial whaling can be thwarted, Conservation Minister Chris Carter has said.

Reuters - An international whaling group this week is expected to try to chip away at a moratorium on commercial whaling that environmentalists say has saved the Earth's largest creatures from extinction.

AFP - Japan looks poised this week to seize a dominant grip on the world body frustrating its commercial whaling ambitions, and to deal a sickening blow to the global Green movement.

AP - Animal rights activists have called for the resignation of the director of the Los Angeles Zoo, holding him responsible for the death of a 48-year-old Asian elephant named Gita.

AP - There's a new reality show in town — "Panda Cam." The Wolong Giant Panda Research Center in China's southwestern Sichuan province has set up a camera to capture the everyday life of pandas to be watched live on the Internet, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

AP - The state wildlife commission has voted to take the manatee off Florida's endangered species list, saying the animal's population is on the rebound.

Reuters - The fragile maritime ecology of the Andaman and Nicobar archipelago is under threat from widespread illegal fishing, poaching of rare species and the collection of rare coral, a top official said on Friday.