Admin – IUCN – SSC Cetacean Specialist Group

14 Nov 2023

Escalating Threat to Marine Wildlife from Trade Demand for Croaker Fish Swim Bladders

[caption id="attachment_376032" align="alignright" width="300"] Vaquita and tototaba on a totoabera net. Photo O. Vidal[/caption] The CSG has a long history of engaging in efforts to save the vaquita porpoise from extinction due to bycatch in gillnets targeting the totoaba croaker for its swim bladder or maw. Earlier...

03 Nov 2023

Actions taken by Government of Mexico are insufficient to save the vaquita

On 6-10 November the CITES Standing Committee will consider Mexico’s August 2023 Progress and Results Report on its Compliance Action Plan to Prevent Fishing for and Illegal Trade in Totoaba, their Parts and/or Derivatives, to Protect the Vaquita (No. 2023/112 Mexico Compliance Action Plan, CAP). ...

15 Sep 2023

Red List Status and Extinction Risk of the World’s Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises – New Infographic

From 2017 to 2021, the CSG reassessed nearly all currently recognized species of cetaceans (90 of 92 at that time) for the IUCN Red List. Regular updates regarding progress on this task, which involved many CSG members, have been provided on this website (see 2022,...

07 Jun 2023

Vaquitas continue to surprise the world with their tenacity

Article by Barbara Taylor and Lorenzo Rojas-Bracho Given the 45% annual decline estimated in 2018, most people expected Mexico’s vaquita porpoise to already be extinct. Scientists have just seen (May 2023) about the same number of vaquitas they saw in 2019 and 2021 in a small...

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...

09 Mar 2023

Good News from the Zero Tolerance Area in late 2022: Less illegal gillnetting and more evidence of vaquita survival

by Kristin Nowell, Cetacean Action Treasury In 2022 there was a major new development in the Zero Tolerance Area (ZTA), the 225 km2 polygon inside Mexico’s Vaquita Refuge in the Upper Gulf of California. The ZTA, which was delineated to encompass all recent vaquita sightings and...

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...

05 Dec 2022

Vaquita Update II: Illegal fishing continues with impunity in the area where the last vaquitas survive

News article submitted by Barb Taylor and Jay Barlow On a visit to San Felipe, Mexico on 27-28 November, we witnessed illegal fishing-related activity with no sign of enforcement and no attempt by fishers to conceal their activities from authorities. In the area we observed, the...

05 Dec 2022

Vaquita Update I: A New Totoaba Season Begins with no Assurance that Mexico Will Enforce the Gillnet Fishing Ban to Protect the Vaquita

Totoaba begin spawning in December in the shallow waters where the last vaquitas survive. With only around ten vaquitas left, it was hoped that the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) would use its authority and motivate Mexico to stop the illegal trade...

Author:Admin

Escalating Threat to Marine Wildlife from Trade Demand for Croaker Fish Swim Bladders

Actions taken by Government of Mexico are insufficient to save the vaquita

Red List Status and Extinction Risk of the World’s Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises – New Infographic

Vaquitas continue to surprise the world with their tenacity

Vaquitas get action from CITES as totoaba poaching resumes

Good News from the Zero Tolerance Area in late 2022: Less illegal gillnetting and more evidence of vaquita survival

Yet Another Threat to Taiwanese White Dolphins Is Imminent

Update on Cetacean Red List Assessments Published in 2022

Vaquita Update II: Illegal fishing continues with impunity in the area where the last vaquitas survive

Vaquita Update I: A New Totoaba Season Begins with no Assurance that Mexico Will Enforce the Gillnet Fishing Ban to Protect the Vaquita

Escalating Threat to Marine Wildlife from Trade Demand for Croaker Fish Swim Bladders

Actions taken by Government of Mexico are insufficient to save the vaquita

Red List Status and Extinction Risk of the World’s Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises – New Infographic

Vaquitas continue to surprise the world with their tenacity

Vaquitas get action from CITES as totoaba poaching resumes

Good News from the Zero Tolerance Area in late 2022: Less illegal gillnetting and more evidence of vaquita survival

Yet Another Threat to Taiwanese White Dolphins Is Imminent

Update on Cetacean Red List Assessments Published in 2022

Subscribe

IUCN – SSC Cetacean Specialist Group

LATEST TWEETS

Latest Post

Escalating Threat to Marine Wildlife from Trade Demand for Croaker Fish Swim Bladders

Actions taken by Government of Mexico are insufficient to save the vaquita

Red List Status and Extinction Risk of the World’s Whales, Dolphins and Porpoises – New Infographic