Subject: Re: Whale Extinction
Robert Kenney (rkenney@gsosun1.gso.uri.edu)
Sun, 23 Nov 97 13:48:37 EST
At 19:29 11/20/97 -0600, you wrote:
>Hello,
> I am a student in currently in 11th grade. I am doing a research
>project on if whales are in danger of extinction. I was wondering if it
>is at all possible and if you had recent information or know of any
>refrences that would be interesting or of use to let me know. I would
>highly appretiate it!
>Thanks,
>Erin
There are some populations of some species of whales that are in danger of
extinction. Including all whales down to the smallest ones (a dolphin or
porpoise is really just a small whale), the populations in the most trouble
today include:
North Atlantic right whales
North Pacific right whales
Gulf of California porpoise (vaquita)
Chinese river dolphin (baiji)
Ganges river dolphin (susu)
Indus river dolphin (susu)
Finless porpoise
Possibly some bowhead and blue whale populations
Of these, the vaquita and baiji are in the most danger - they are both
classified as critically endangered by IUCN. Many of the large whales which
are on the U.S. endangered species list, like fin whales, humpback whales,
and sperm whales, are probably in very little danger of extinction.
IUCN is the World Conservation Union (it used to be the International Union
for the Conservation of Nature - they changed their name but kept the old
initials), and they publish what is called the Red List of Threatened
Animals. You can search the list on the Web by going to:
http://www.wcmc.org.uk/data/database/rl_anml_combo.html
Cheers,
Dr. Bob
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| Robert D. Kenney, Ph.D. rkenney@gsosun1.gso.uri.edu |
| University of Rhode Island ('gsosunONE' not 'gsosunELL') |
| Graduate School of Oceanography |
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