A file photograph dated 07 January 2006 and released by Greenpeace, showing the Yushin Maru, a factory ship in a Japanese whaling fleet, injuring a whale with it's first harpoon attempt. A UN court in The Hague on 31 March 2014 halted Japan's much-criticized whaling programme, ruling that it contravenes a 1986 moratorium on whale hunting. Japan must end its 'research whaling' programme, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) said. Japan said the programme was for scientific research and permitted under international conventions. Australia had brought the case to the ICJ in 2010, charging that Japan was breaching international law by killing hundreds of whales every year for commercial purposes. Japan was “deeply disappointed” by the ruling, an unnamed government official was quoted by the Kyodo News agency as saying. But the official said Japan would stand by the ruling. (Photo by Kate Davison/EPA)

Split-view of a killer whale at sunrise off the coast of Northern Norway. At least half of the world’s killer whale populations are doomed to extinction due to pollution of the oceans, a new study says. (Photo by Audun Rikardsen/Science)

Inquisitive elephant seal pups venture towards a photographer on South Georgia, an uninhabited island near Antarctica early July 2022. The seals are not used to seeing humans and shuffled closer to Charlotte Rhodes rather than shying away. (Photo by Charlotte Rhodes/Media Drum Images)

Doris Pennman adjusts her umbrella as she walks along Mission Beach on January 8, 2005 in San Diego, Califonia. (Photo by Sandy Huffaker/Getty Images)

A man wearing a Guy Fawkes mask enjoys a ride on a 350-meter (1148 feet) long water slide during 2015 City Silde Festa in central Seoul, South Korea, July 19, 2015. A 350 meter-long waterslide has been installed in downtown of Seoul, the longest waterslide to be recorded in Korea, according to local media. (Photo by Kim Hong-Ji/Reuters)

This is the moment a diver appears to shake hands with a giant 52ft whale. The divers were just metres away when one humpback whale – which weighs 36,000kg – extends its giant flipper in a peaceful manner. (Photo by Masa Ushioda/SeaPics/Solent News & Photo Agency)

A golden huddle by Minqiang Lu, China. Two females and a male golden snub-nosed monkey huddle together to keep warm in the extreme cold. Threatened by forest loss and fragmentation, this endangered species is confined to central China. Restricted to living high up in the temperate forests, these monkeys – here in the Qinling mountains in Shaanxi province – feed mostly in the trees, on leaves, bark, buds and lichen. In heavy wind and snow, Minqiang walked up the mountain carrying his equipment. He stayed for half an hour in temperatures of –10C opposite the tree where the group was huddled before achieving this eye-level composition. (Photo by Minqiang Lu/Wildlife Photographer of the Year)

Steven Busulwa, an animal keeper, runs away from a charging rhino at the Uganda Wildlife Conservation Education Center (UWEC) amid the lockdown as part of the measures taken to prevent the spread of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), within Wakiso district, in Entebbe, Uganda on April 20, 2020. (Photo by Abubaker Lubowa/Reuters)