Good news for whales & whale-lovers from the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
The organization that maintains a global Red List of Threatened Species believes the humpback whale and southern right whale are recovering throughout much of their range, and will change their status from "vulnerable" to a category of "least concern" as a result.
The main reason: They've been largely protected from commercial whaling. Kind of a no-brainer, really. Who knew that If you stop killing whales, you'd have more of them in the ocean?!
That doesn't mean humpbacks are out of the woods yet -- nor is the picture rosy for all cetaceans worldwide. The same IUCN report, to be released in October at its World Conservation Congress in Barcelona, still rates two species and 12 subpopulations as critically endangered.
Now the major threat not commercial whaling but the fact that so many animals are dying accidentally in commercial fishing gear. The impact of climate change on ocean ecosystems is running a close second.
The Yangtze River dolphin is considered "critically endangered, possibly extinct" by IUCN. And the vaquita -- a porpoise native to the Sea of Cortez in Mexico -- is down to 150 individuals in the wild and is also on the brink of extinction. Gillnet fisheries are killing about 15 percent of the population as bycatch each year, the IUCN says.
In general, according to Randall Reeves, a cetacean specialist with the IUCN Species Survival Commission, "Too many of these small coastal cetaceans end up as bycatch in fisheries. This remains the main threat to them and it is only going to get worse."
The Black Sea harbor porpoise, which moves from vulnerable to endangered, the North Atlantic right whale and the western gray whale, already listed as endangered and critically endangered respectively, are among the other cetaceans most at risk from the threat of accidental entanglement in fishing gear.
What's a human to do? First, make sure the seafood you're eating has minimal unintended consequences on marine life. That's what our Seafood Watch program is all about. Second, make sure your voice is heard on critical marine conservation issues, from creation of marine protected areas to campaigns to protect whales and other ocean animals. That's what joining Monterey Bay Aquarium's Ocean Action Team is all about.