Megaptera novaeangliae

– Vulnerable

Taxonomy

Kingdom:	ANIMALIA
Phylum:	CHORDATA
Class:	MAMMALIA
Order:	CETACEA
Family:	BALAENOPTERIDAE
Scientific Name:	Megaptera novaeangliae
Species Authority:	(Borowski, 1781)
Common Name/s:	BUNCH (Eng) HUMP WHALE (Eng) HUMPBACK WHALE (Eng) HUNCHBACKED WHALE (Eng) BALEINE À BOSSE (Fre) BALEINE À TAQUET (Fre) JUBARTE (Fre) MÉGAPTÈRE (Fre) RORQUAL DU CAP (Fre) RORQUAL À BOSSE (Fre) BALLENA JOROBADA (Spa) GUBARTE (Spa) JOROBADA (Spa) RORCUAL JOROBADO (Spa)

Assessment Information

Red List Category & Criteria:

VU A1ad ver 2.3 (1994)

Year Assessed:

1996

Annotations:

Needs updating

Assessor/s:

Cetacean Specialist Group

Justification:

Extract from Reeves et al. (2003, pp. 36-37): "Humpback Whales have a cosmopolitan distribution that generally involves long migrations between high-latitude summer feeding grounds and tropical breeding grounds (Clapham 2000). Although commercial whaling seriously depleted all humpback stocks, the species has demonstrated remarkable resilience and many of those stocks are recovering (Clapham et al. 1999). As coastal and charismatic animals, humpbacks are major tourist attractions in some areas. They are also the subjects of numerous local population studies (e.g., Steiger and Calambokidis 2000, Razafindrakoto et al. 2001) as well as basin-scale research programs (Baker et al. 1998, Smith et al. 1999). Although they are certainly vulnerable to ship collisions, entanglement in fishing gear, and disturbance (even serious injury) from industrial noise, humpbacks seem able to adapt, or at least tolerate, living in close proximity to a considerable variety and amount of human activities. They are actively hunted today only at Bequia, St. Vincent and the Grenadines, in the eastern Caribbean Sea. With growing humpback populations, however, pressure to resume commercial whaling in at least a few areas is likely to mount. The species was listed as Vulnerable (under the 1996 categories and criteria) based on the fact that, although most monitored stocks had shown evidence of fast recovery and may have increased to more than 50% of their levels three generations ago (1930s, assuming a 20-year generation time), they had not yet attained 80% of those levels. Importantly, the large illegal kills by Soviet factory ships in the Southern Hemisphere from the 1950s to the early 1970s would have delayed recovery of southern stocks."

History:

1965	-	"Less rare but believed to be threatened-requires watching" (Scott 1965)
1986	-	Endangered (IUCN Conservation Monitoring Centre 1986)
1988	-	Endangered (IUCN Conservation Monitoring Centre 1988)
1990	-	Vulnerable (IUCN 1990)
1994	-	Vulnerable (Groombridge 1994)

Geographic Range

Countries:

Native:

American Samoa; Angola; Argentina; Australia; Bangladesh; Benin; Bermuda; Brazil; Canada; Cape Verde; Chile; Congo; Congo, The Democratic Republic of the; Cook Islands; Dominican Republic; Ecuador; Falkland Islands (Malvinas); Fiji; France; Greenland; Iceland; India; Indonesia; Iraq; Japan; Kenya; Korea, Democratic People's Republic of; Korea, Republic of; Madagascar; Malaysia; Marshall Islands; Mexico; Mozambique; Netherlands Antilles; New Caledonia; New Zealand; Northern Mariana Islands; Norway; Pakistan; Panama; Peru; Poland; Russian Federation; Saint Lucia; Saint Vincent and the Grenadines; Samoa; Solomon Islands; South Africa; Sri Lanka; Svalbard and Jan Mayen; Tanzania, United Republic of; Tonga; United Kingdom; United States; Vanuatu; Venezuela

FAO Marine Fishing Areas:

Native:

Arctic Sea; Atlantic-Antarctic; Atlantic-eastern central; Atlantic-northeast; Atlantic-northwest; Atlantic-southeast; Atlantic-southwest; Atlantic-western central; Indian Ocean-Antarctic; Indian Ocean-eastern; Indian Ocean-western; Mediterranean and Black Sea; Pacific-Antarctic; Pacific-eastern central; Pacific-northeast; Pacific-northwest; Pacific-southeast; Pacific-southwest; Pacific-western central

Population

Population Trend:

Habitat and Ecology

System:

Marine

List of Habitats:

9.1	Marine Neritic - Pelagic
10.1	Marine Oceanic - Epipelagic (0-200m)

Threats

List of Threats:

3.1.2	Harvesting (hunting/gathering) - Food - Sub-national/national trade (past, present)
3.1.3	Harvesting (hunting/gathering) - Food - Regional/international trade (past)
4.1.1.3	Accidental mortality - Bycatch - Fisheries-related - Entanglement (ongoing)
4.2.2	Accidental mortality - Collision - Vehicle collision (ongoing)
6.3.10	Pollution (affecting habitat and/or species) - Water pollution - Noise pollution (present, future)

Bibliography

Bibliography:

Baker, C.S., Flórez-González, L., Abernethy, B., Rosenbaum, H.C., Slade, R.W., Capella, J. and Bannister, J.L. 1998. Mitochondrial DNA variation and maternal gene flow among Humpback Whales of the Southern Hemisphere. Marine Mammal Science 14: 721–737.

Clapham, P.J. 2000. The Humpback Whale: seasonal feeding and breeding in a baleen whale. In: J. Mann, R.C. Connor, P.L. Tyack, and H. Whitehead (eds), Cetacean Societies: Field Studies of Dolphins and Whales, pp. 173-196. University of Chicago Press, Chicago. 433pp.

Clapham, P.J., Young, S.B. and Brownell Jr., R.L. 1999. Baleen whales: conservation issues and the status of the most endangered populations. Mammal Review 29: 35–60.

Groombridge, B. (ed.) 1994. 1994 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland.

IUCN Conservation Monitoring Centre. 1986. 1986 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.

IUCN Conservation Monitoring Centre. 1988. 1988 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.

IUCN. 1990. 1990 IUCN Red List of Threatened Animals. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.

Razafindrakoto, Y., Rosenbaum, H.C. and Helweg, D.A. 2001. First description of Humpback Whale song from Antongil Bay, Madagascar. Marine Mammal Science 17: 180–186.

Reeves, R.R., Smith, B.D., Crespo, E.A. and di Sciara, G.N. (compilers) 2003. Dolphins, Whales and Porpoises: 2002-2010 Conservation Action Plan for the World's Cetaceans. IUCN/SSC Cetacean Specialist Group. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK.

Scott, P. (ed.) 1965. Section XIII. Preliminary List of Rare Mammals and Birds. In: The Launching of a New Ark, pp. 15–207. First Report of the President and Trustees of the World Wildlife Fund. An International Foundation for saving the world's wildlife and wild places 1961–1964. Collins, London.

Smith, T.D., Allen, J., Clapham, P.J., Hammond, P.S., Katona, S., Larsen, F., Lien, J., Mattila, D., Palsbøll, P.J., Sigurjónsson, J., Stevick, P.T. and Øien, N. 1999. An ocean-basin-wide mark-recapture study of the North Atlantic Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae). Marine Mammal Science 15: 1–32.

Steiger, G.H. and Calambokidis, J. 2000. Reproductive rates of humpback whales off California. Marine Mammal Science 16: 220–239.

Citation:	Cetacean Specialist Group 1996. Megaptera novaeangliae. In: IUCN 2007. 2007 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 04 July 2008.
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