Balaenoptera musculus ssp. brevicauda

– Data Deficient

Taxonomy

Kingdom:

ANIMALIA

Phylum:

CHORDATA

Class:

MAMMALIA

Order:

CETACEA

Family:

BALAENOPTERIDAE

Scientific Name:

Balaenoptera musculus ssp. brevicauda

Infra-specific Authority:

Ichihara, 1966

Common Name/s:

English

—

PYGMY BLUE WHALE

Taxonomic Notes:

Note B. m. brevicauda Zemsky & Boronin is a nomen nudum.

Assessment Information

Red List Category & Criteria:	DD ver 2.3 (1994)
Year Assessed:	1996
Annotations:	Needs updating
Assessor/s:	Cetacean Specialist Group
Justification:	Extract from Reeves et al. (2003, p. 36): "...the Pygmy Blue Whale, centered in the Sub-Antarctic Zone of the Indian Ocean between 0º and 80ºE, was listed as Data Deficient because of uncertainty about its taxonomic status and abundance. Of particular concern in this assessment was that more than 8,000 Pygmy Blue Whales had been taken illegally by Soviet whalers in the 1960s and 1970s (Clapham et al. 1999)."

Geographic Range

Range Description:

Centered in the Sub-Antarctic Zone of the Indian Ocean between 0°E and 80°E, especially around Prince Edward Island, and the islands of Crozet and Kerguelen. May also range westwards into the southeastern South Atlantic and eastwards into the Tasman Sea. A population along the coast of Chile may also be this species. The winter range is virtually unknown, with scattered records from South Africa and Australia (Rice 1998).

Countries:

Native:

Australia (Tasmania, Western Australia); Canada (Prince Edward I.); French Southern Territories (Crozet Is., Kerguelen)

Uncertain presence and origin:

Chile

FAO Marine Fishing Areas:

Native:

Atlantic-Antarctic; Atlantic-southeast; Atlantic-southwest; Indian Ocean-Antarctic; Indian Ocean-eastern; Indian Ocean-western; Pacific-Antarctic; Pacific-southeast; Pacific-southwest

Habitat and Ecology

System:

Marine

List of Habitats:

10.1	Marine Oceanic - Epipelagic (0-200m)

Threats

List of Threats:

3.1.3

Harvesting (hunting/gathering) - Food - Regional/international trade (past)

Bibliography

Bibliography:

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.

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.

Rice, D.W. 1998. Marine Mammals of the World. Systematics and Distribution. Special Publication Number 4. The Society for Marine Mamalogy, Lawrence, Kansas.

Citation:	Cetacean Specialist Group 1996. Balaenoptera musculus ssp. brevicauda. In: IUCN 2007. 2007 IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. <www.iucnredlist.org>. Downloaded on 30 August 2008.
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