IUCN – SSC Cetacean Specialist Group

Critically Endangered

31 Mar 2021

Urgent Letter sent from IUCN Species Survival Commission to Mexican Authorities to correct false information about vaquita decline

Last week, the IUCN Species Survival Commission sent a letter (see version in Spanish, and English) to the Secretaries of the Mexican Navy, Environment, and Agriculture and Fisheries authorities, to counter false allegations that vaquitas are going extinct because of a change in salinity within...

26 Jan 2021

Vaquita update October through December 2020

[caption id="attachment_349755" align="alignright" width="311"] Searching for vaquitas through the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society's newly purchased 'big eye' binoculars. This specialized scientific equipment is part of an increasing scientific conservation effort by SSCS.[/caption] Despite the many challenges presented throughout an exceptionally difficult year, a few vaquitas continue...

07 Oct 2020

Nuremberg Workshop on Ex-situ Options for Cetacean Conservation and the Launch of ICPC

Nuremberg ESOCC Workshop The extinction of the Yangtze River dolphin, or baiji, in China in 2006, and the recent precipitous decline of the vaquita in Mexico, have highlighted the urgency of gaining information and taking action to anticipate and prevent such rapid declines in other threatened...

10 Sep 2020

IUCN Letter expressing concern regarding the impact of the Panay-Guimaras-Negros Bridges Project on Critically Endangered Irrawaddy dolphins in the Philippines

In late August 2020, Bruno Oberle, Director General of IUCN, and Jon Paul Rodriguez, Chair of the IUCN Species Survival Commission, signed a letter to the Secretary of the Department of Public Works and Highways in Manila, Philippines expressing concern about the likely impacts of...

27 Aug 2020

3 Updated Cetacean Red List Assessments Published in 2020 So Far

Assessments or reassessments of 3 cetacean species, subspecies or populations were published on the IUCN Red List in early 2020. This is in addition to the 6 published in December 2019, 2 published in July 2019, 5 published in March 2019, 35 published in November...

24 Aug 2020

Evidence of a Singular Cause of the Vaquita’s Steep Decline: Bycatch

A recently published paper provides etiological analyses of eight vaquita deaths in March and April 2016–2018. Nutritional state, lesions, biotoxins and levels of contaminants in fat were considered. Injuries to the seven vaquitas found dead (the eighth animal was the healthy adult female that died...

10 Mar 2020

March 2020 – Another vaquita death

A video (see below) has come to light that was taken by a fisherman in the upper Gulf of California and which shows a dead vaquita entangled in a fishing net. The video is determined to be authentic and was recorded in early March 2020. [video width="1920"...

04 Mar 2020

Cetacean conservation in the world’s rivers, lakes and oceans

A new article regarding the work and challenges facing the Cetacean Specialist Group, written by Dr Randall Reeves, the groups Chair, was recently published by IUCN. You can read it at the following link: https://www.iucncongress2020.org/newsroom/all-news/cetacean-conservation-worlds-rivers-lakes-and-oceans...

03 Mar 2020

December 2019 – February 2020 Vaquita Update

As a review, the 2018-2019 totoaba net-removal effort was greatly reduced due to violent attacks where net-removal vessels were forced to leave the area (Table 1). Press releases including video of the attacks are available here for the January 9th attack and here for the...

18 Nov 2019