An update of The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species recently released by the International Union for Conservation of Nature has demonstrated that species like the fin whale have benefited from collaborative conservation action to protect them. This whale species has moved from Endangered to Vulnerable, and its recovery follows international bans on commercial whaling in the North Pacific and in the Southern Hemisphere, in place since 1976, and on significant reductions in catches in the North Atlantic since 1990. The global population has now reached around 100,000 mature individuals.
The status of the western sub-population of the gray whale has also improved, moving from Critically Endangered to Endangered. This whale species have been protected from commercial whaling in almost all range state since 1980, but only recently has there been clear evidence of increasing numbers in the western Pacific, particularly off Sakhalin Island, Russia. Industrial activity including oil and gas development and commercial fisheries represent a potential threat to gray whales and since 2004, an IUCN-led independent panel of scientists has been advising Sakhalin Energy, one of the largest companies operating offshore in the Russian Far East, on how to manage the potential impacts of its activities on the whales.
The IUCN Red List now includes 96,951 species of which 26,840 are threatened with extinction.
