IUCN – SSC Cetacean Specialist Group

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IUCN – SSC Cetacean Specialist Group / Articles posted by Admin
06 Apr 2023

Vaquitas get action from CITES as totoaba poaching resumes

By Barbara Taylor, Lorenzo Rojas-Bracho and Kristin Nowell On 27 March 2023 the Secretariat of the Convention on the International Trade of Endangered Species (CITES) notified signatory countries to stop all commercial trade in CITES-listed (in Appendix I or II) species from Mexico.  This decision stems...

05 Jan 2023

Yet Another Threat to Taiwanese White Dolphins Is Imminent

News item prepared by Randall Reeves (CSG Chair) and Louisa Ponnampalam and Brian Smith (CSG Asia Coordinators)   On 13 February 2022, an article appeared on this website concerning the existential threat of net entanglement to Taiwan’s endemic humpback dolphin subspecies (Sousa chinensis taiwanensis; known locally as...

23 Dec 2022

Update on Cetacean Red List Assessments Published in 2022

IUCN published two Red List updates in 2022 – 2022-1 in July and 2022-2 in December.  The new cetacean assessments reflected several recent taxonomic changes (see Committee on Taxonomy). Ramari’s beaked whale (Mesoplodon eueu), a newly recognised species, was assessed as DD (Brownell and Pitman...

22 Jul 2022

In Memory of William F. (Bill) Perrin, (1938-2022)

The world’s cetaceans – whales, dolphins and porpoises – lost one of their most effective champions on 11 July 2022 when Dr. William F. Perrin died at the age of 83 in La Jolla, California. He was surrounded not only by his wife Dr. Louella Dolar, herself...

08 Jun 2022

Strong evidence of violations of vaquita Zero Tolerance Area (ZTA)

  A new report reveals evidence that many pangas have continued to use the ZTA (mostly for gillnetting). Observations of this illegal activity were made both from the sea by the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society and from land by ZTA Watch.  Pangas were present inside the...

06 May 2022

Vaquitas not doomed to extinction by inbreeding depression

[caption id="attachment_375681" align="alignright" width="300"] Mother and calf vaquita surface near San Felipe, Mexico. Credit: Paula Olson[/caption] New research shows that the endangered vaquita in the Gulf of California in Mexico remains genetically healthy enough for the species to recover if illegal gillnetting stops killing them.  The paper, “The...