IUCN – SSC Cetacean Specialist Group

Critically Endangered

IUCN – SSC Cetacean Specialist Group / Critically Endangered
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...

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...

20 Apr 2022

Illegal fishing remains the sole immediate threat to vaquitas

Recent claims have been made that a reduction in illegal gillnet fishing in the northern Gulf of California is allowing for a gradual population recovery of the vaquita, Mexico’s endemic, critically endangered porpoise. Earlier recommendations by the Vaquita Recovery Team (CIRVA—Comité Internacional para la Recuperación...

19 Mar 2022

Last Mekong dolphin in the Cambodia-Laos transboundary pool dies

The most recent of the seven news items on this website concerning the Critically Endangered population of Irrawaddy dolphins (Orcaella brevirostris) in the Mekong River was posted almost exactly four years ago. Since that time, the information on this population in the Focal Taxa section...

13 Feb 2022

Dead Taiwanese White Dolphin stranded in Tainan City

News Item Prepared by Megan Kuo and Amy Tian of Wild at Heart Legal Defense Association, Taiwan   [caption id="attachment_375489" align="alignright" width="339"] Photograph of Joker with his distinctive lip gash as well as an unpigmented (white) healed line scar on the front edge of the flipper. Photograph...

16 Dec 2021

Vaquitas seen in autumn 2021 survey

From October 17 through November 3, 2021, a vaquita research effort was privately funded through the Museo de la Ballena y Ciencias del Mar and a number of private donors.  The survey focused on the last stronghold of vaquitas, the Zero Tolerance Area (ZTA) declared...