Megaptera novaeangliae
– Vulnerable
Taxonomy
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Kingdom:
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ANIMALIA
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Phylum:
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CHORDATA
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Class:
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MAMMALIA
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Order:
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CETACEA
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Family:
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BALAENOPTERIDAE
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Scientific Name:
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Megaptera novaeangliae
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Species Authority:
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(Borowski, 1781)
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Common Name/s:
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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)
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Assessment Information
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Red List Category & Criteria:
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VU A1ad ver 2.3 (1994)
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Year Assessed:
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1996
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Annotations:
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Needs updating
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Assessor/s:
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Cetacean Specialist Group
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Justification:
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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."
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History:
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| 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) |
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Geographic Range
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Countries:
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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
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FAO Marine Fishing Areas:
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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
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Population
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Population Trend:
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Habitat and Ecology
