Society for Marine Mammalogy

The 2008 IUCN Cetacean Red List has been released, reassessing the conservation status of all cetacean species.

Some large whale species, including the humpback whale (Megaptera novaeangliae), are now less threatened with extinction, according to the cetacean update of the 2008 IUCN Red List. Most small coastal and freshwater cetaceans, however, are apparently moving closer to extinction. Almost a third of cetaceans changed their Red List status, with the majority being at greater risk than previously.

The Global Mammal Assessment (GMA) team together with the IUCN SSC Mammal Specialist Groups, have undertaken a complete re-evaluation of the status of all the world's mammal species, which includes the collation of all the supporting documentation for each listing and a review of all mammal assessments included on the Red List since 2004. The cetaceans assessments were carried out primarily by scientists from the Cetacean Specialist Group of the IUCN Species Survival Commission withinput from the Global Mammal Assessment team.