Blue Whale
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Blue Whale Conservation Status

Blue Whale conservation status (Balaenoptera musculus)
The Blue Whale is included in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species and it is currently placed in the conservation status group Endangered (EN). When an animal is placed in this group, it is facing a very high risk of extinction in the wild in the near future.

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species arranges threatened and extinct species into six different groups.

• Extinct (EX)
• Extinct in the wild (EW)
• Critically endangered (CR)
• Endangered (EN)
• Vulnerable (VU)
• Lower risk (LR)

In 1999, Clapham et al noted that some populations of Blue Whales in the Northern Hemisphere seemed to have recovered somewhat from the massive hunting that took place well into the 1950s. The Blue Whale was given a certain degree of legal protection in 1967, but Soviet whaling fleets continued to operate during the 1960s and 1970s. Clapham et al also noted how several other Blue Whale populations had not yet recovered, and strong actions are necessary if we want these populations to ever recover. Hunting still has a large impact on the conservation status of the Blue Whale. Today, there are no Blue Whales at all living off southern Japan, and very few are seen in the Gulf of Alaska and in the southern Bering Sea. Near the coasts of Iceland and California, the populations are on the other hand showing clear signs of recuperation. Global warming and oceanic warming may however injure these populations as well. Temperature changes could affect the uphaussids, and since they make up the staple food for Blue Whales (especially the krill species Euphausia superba), a change could have a dramatic impact on the conservation status of the Blue Whale.