35 Updated Cetacean Red List Assessments published in Nov 2018
Assessments or reassessments of 35 cetacean species, subspecies or populations were published on the IUCN Red List in November 2018. This is in addition to the 10 new assessments published in July 2018, and 19 published in November 2017. The updated assessments included a number of baleen whales, including the Fin Whale, Blue Whale, Humpback Whale, Sei Whale, Common Minke Whale, Omura’s Whale and Gray Whale (see Table 1 for details). They also included updated assessments for a large number of the more common odontocetes, including the Spinner Dolphin, Pantropical Spotted Dolphin, Risso’s Dolphin, Fraser’s Dolphin, Striped Dolphin, Atlantic Spotted Dolphin and both Pilot Whales. For 17 of the updated assessments, the Red List status remained the same as in the previous assessment and for 18 there was a change in classification. The conservation status of the Fin Whale and the western subpopulation of Gray Whales has improved: the Fin Whale was down-listed from Endangered to Vulnerable and the western subpopulation of Gray Whales from Critically Endangered to Endangered.
The Iloilo-Guimaras subpopulation of Irrawaddy Dolphins, a new listing, is Critically Endangered, as is the Antarctic subspecies of Blue Whales. Species listed as Endangered were the Sei Whale, Blue Whale and Amazon River Dolphin, and those listed as Vulnerable were the Fin Whale and the Mediterranean sub-population of Cuvier’s Beaked Whales. The Heaviside’s Dolphin, Guiana Dolphin, Burmeister’s Porpoise and False Killer Whale are all now listed as Near Threatened.
Following new guidance from IUCN on how to interpret and apply the Data Deficient category, 14 species previously categorized as Data Deficient are now assigned to a different category: 8 Least Concern, 4 Near Threatened, 1 Vulnerable and 1 Endangered.
Work on updated and new assessments is continuing and we expect more to be published in 2019.
Table 1 – Summary of reassessments or new assessments published in the 2018-2 (Nov) Red List update. (NT = Near Threatened, DD = Data Deficient, CR = Critically Endangered, EN=Endangered, LC=Least Concern)
# |
Species/Subspecies |
Common name |
Taxonomic level |
Category |
Status change |
||||||
1 |
Balaenoptera acutorostrata |
Common Minke Whale |
Species (global) |
LC |
No change |
||||||
2 |
Megaptera novaeangliae |
Humpback Whale |
Species (global) |
LC |
No change |
||||||
3 |
Balaenoptera musculus |
Blue Whale |
Species (global) |
EN |
No change |
||||||
4 |
Balaenoptera borealis |
Sei Whale |
Species (global) |
EN |
No change |
||||||
5 |
Eschrichtius robustus |
Gray Whale |
Species (global) |
LC |
No change |
||||||
6 |
Eschrichtius robustus |
Gray Whale |
western subpopulation |
EN |
CR->EN |
||||||
7 |
Balaenoptera physalus |
Fin Whale |
Species (global) |
VU |
EN->VU |
||||||
8 |
Balaenoptera omurai |
Omura’s Whale |
Species (global) |
DD |
No change |
||||||
9 |
Caperea marginata |
Pygmy Right Whale |
Species (global) |
LC |
No change |
||||||
10 |
Balaenoptera musculus intermedia |
Antarctic Blue Whale |
Subspecies |
CR |
No change |
||||||
11 |
Orcaella brevirostris |
Irrawaddy Dolphin |
Iloilo-Guimaras subpopulation |
CR |
New listing |
||||||
12 |
Ziphius cavirostris |
Cuvier’s Beaked Whale |
Mediterraneansubpopulation |
VU |
DD->VU |
||||||
13 |
Sotalia guianensis |
Guiana Dolphin |
Species (global) |
NT |
DD->NT |
||||||
14 |
Inia geoffrensis |
Amazon River Dolphin |
Species (global) |
EN |
DD->EN |
||||||
15 |
Cephalorhynchus heavisidii |
Heaviside’s Dolphin |
Species (global) |
NT |
DD->NT |
||||||
16 |
Feresa attenuate |
Pygmy Killer Whale |
Species (global) |
LC |
DD>LC |
||||||
17 |
Phocoena spinipinnis |
Burmeister’s Porpoise |
Species (global) |
NT |
DD->NT |
||||||
18 |
Tasmacetus shepherdi |
Shepherd’s Beaked Whale |
Species (global) |
DD |
No change |
||||||
19 |
Mesoplodon hotaula |
Deraniyagala’s Beaked Whale |
Species (global) |
DD |
New listing |
||||||
20 |
Stenella clymene |
Clymene Dolphin |
Species (global) |
LC |
DD->LC |
||||||
21 |
Phocoena dioptrica |
Spectacled Porpoise |
Species (global) |
LC |
DD-> LC |
||||||
22 |
Lagenorhynchus obliquidens |
Pacific White-sided Dolphin |
Species (global) |
LC |
No change |
||||||
23 |
Stenella frontalis |
Atlantic Spotted Dolphin |
Species (global) |
LC |
DD->LC |
||||||
24 |
Grampus griseus |
Risso’s Dolphin |
Species (global) |
LC |
No change |
||||||
25 |
Phocoenoides dalli |
Dall’s Porpoise |
Species (global) |
LC |
No change |
||||||
26 |
Stenella longirostris |
Spinner Dolphin |
Species (global) |
LC |
DD->LC |
||||||
27 |
Lagenodelphis hosei |
Fraser’s Dolphin |
Species (global) |
LC |
No change |
||||||
28 |
Lissodelphis peronii |
Southern Right Whale Dolphin |
Species (global) |
LC |
DD->LC |
||||||
29 |
Stenella attenuata |
Pantropical Spotted Dolphin |
Species (global) |
LC |
No change |
||||||
30 |
Lagenorhynchus cruciger |
Hourglass Dolphin |
Species (global) |
LC |
No change |
||||||
31 |
Lissodelphis borealis |
Northern Right Whale Dolphin |
Species (global) |
LC |
No change |
||||||
32 |
Lagenorhynchus albirostris |
White-beaked Dolphin |
Species (global) |
LC |
No change |
||||||
33 |
Pseudorca crassidens |
False Killer Whale |
Species (global) |
NT |
DD->NT |
||||||
34 |
Globicephala macrorhynchus |
Short-finned pilot whale |
Species (global) |
LC |
DD->LC |
||||||
35 |
Globicephala melas |
Long-finned pilot whale |
Species (global) |
LC |
DD->LC |
The Red List status and documentation for the 89 currently recognised cetacean species as well as 39 subspecies or subpopulations can be found on the IUCN Red List website (redlist.org). Of the 89 species, 29% are assigned to a threatened category (i.e. CR, EN, VU, NT) and 32% are considered DD although ongoing reassessments of Data Deficient species are likely to result in some of them being reclassified in the near future (see Table 2).
Table 2. Summary information on Red List status as of Nov 2018.
Category |
Species |
Subspecies/populations |
Total |
Critically Endangered |
3 |
16 |
19 |
Endangered |
10 |
11 |
21 |
Vulnerable |
7 |
8 |
15 |
Near Threatened |
6 |
0 |
6 |
Least Concern |
34 |
0 |
34 |
Lower Risk/Conservation Dependent* |
0 |
1 |
1 |
Data Deficient |
29 |
3 |
32 |
Total |
89 |
39 |
128 |
*This is no longer a recognized category and this assessment is out of date.