Supported Species Aquatic Mammal
| Species Name: | Baiji |
| Scientific Name: | Lipotes vexillifer |
| Conservation Status (Year Published): |
Critically Endangered (Possibly Extinct) (2008) Critically Endangered (1996, 2006 & 2007) Endangered (1986, 1988, 1990 & 1994) The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2008: e.T12119A3322533. Downloaded on 25 April 2017. |
| Estimated Wild Population: | This species may already be extinct (Possibly Extinct). The last documented sighting (supported by photographic evidence) was in 2002 and the last confirmed stranding was in 2001. In 2006, a comprehensive visual and acoustic survey failed to find a single Baiji in the Yangtze River. |
| Distribution: | Endemic to China, along the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River. |
| Major Threats: | Degradation and loss of habitat, incidental mortality from interactions with fisheries. |
| Species Name: | Blue Whale |
| Scientific Name: | Balaenoptera musculus |
| Conservation Status (Year Published): |
Endangered (1986, 1988, 1990, 1994, 1996 & 2008) The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2008: e.T2477A9447146. Downloaded on 25 April 2017. |
| Estimated Wild Population: | Estimated at around 10,000-25,000 globally. Population trend is increasing. |
| Distribution: | Cosmopolitan species, found in all oceans except the Arctic, but absent from some regional seas such as the Mediterranean, Okhotsk and Bering seas. |
| Major Threats: | Ship strikes and entanglements |
| Species Name: | Cuvier's beaked whale |
| Scientific Name: | Ziphius cavirostris |
| Conservation Status (Year Published): |
Least Concern (2008) Data Deficient (1996) The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2008: e.T23211A9429826. Downloaded on 25 April 2017. |
| Estimated Wild Population: | Likely over 100,000. Population trend is not known. |
| Distribution: | Widely distributed in offshore waters of all oceans, from the tropics to the polar regions in both hemispheres. |
| Major Threats: | Prey reduction, fisheries by-catch and maybe active sonar and seismic operation. |
| Species Name: | Dugong |
| Scientific Name: | Dugong dugon |
| Conservation Status (Year Published): |
Vulnerable (1982, 1986, 1988, 1990, 1994, 1996, 2006, 2008 & 2015) The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2015: e.T6909A43792211. Downloaded on 25 April 2017. |
| Estimated Wild Population: | Uncertain. Population trend is decreasing. |
| Distribution: | Tropical and subtropical coastal and island waters between East Africa and east of Australia. Based on a regional assessment in 2011, some populations are likely to have higher risk of extinction: Palau and Japan populations as Critically Endangered; East African as Endangered. |
| Major Threats: | Vary between different populations but include fisheries by-catch, hunting, boat strikes, destruction and loss of seagrass bed. |
| Species Name: | Ganges River Dolphin |
| Scientific Name: | Platanista gangetica ssp. gangetica |
| Conservation Status (Year Published): |
Endangered (2004 & 2008) Vulnerable (1988, 1990 & 1994) The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2012: e.T41758A17355810. Downloaded on 25 April 2017. |
| Estimated Wild Population: | Uncertain. Population trend is not known. |
| Distribution: | River systems in Bangladesh, India and Nepal. |
| Major Threats: | Water development projects including damming, water pollution, hunting, and mortality in fishing gear. |
| Species Name: | Gray Whale |
| Scientific Name: | Eschrichtius robustus (western subpopulation) |
| Conservation Status (Year Published): |
Critically Endangered (2000 & 2008) Endangered (1996) The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2008: e.T8099A12885692. Downloaded on 25 April 2017. |
| Estimated Wild Population: | Around 130 individuals of which 30 are reproductive females. Population trend is stable. |
| Distribution: | Coastal waters in the western Pacific Ocean |
| Major Threats: | Near shore industrialization and offshore gas and oil development |
| Species Name: | Humpback Whale |
| Scientific Name: | Megaptera novaeangliae |
| Conservation Status (Year Published): | Arabian and Oceania subpopulations: Endangered (2008) Other subpopulations: Least Concern (2008); Vulnerable (1990, 1994 & 1996), Endangered (1986 & 1988) The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2008: e.T13006A3405371. Downloaded on 25 April 2017. |
| Estimated Wild Population: | Uncertain. Population trend for Arabian sub-population is not known, whilst it is increasing for other subpopulations. |
| Distribution: | A cosmopolitan species found in all the major ocean basins that undertake long migrations between breeding ground in tropical coastal waters in winter to feeding grounds in middle and high latitudes in summer. Not found in the Mediterranean, Baltic Sea and the Arctic Ocean. |
| Major Threats: | Protected from commercial whaling but suffers from entanglement in coastal trap nets and ship strikes. |
| Species Name: | Indus River Dolphin |
| Scientific Name: | Platanista gangetica ssp. minor |
| Conservation Status (Year Published): |
Endangered (1986, 1988, 1990, 1994, 1996, 2004 & 2012) [Needs updating] The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2012: e.T41757A17628296. Downloaded on 25 April 2017. |
| Estimated Wild Population: | Minimum abundance estimate of fewer than 1,000. Population trend is unknown. |
| Distribution: | Endemic to the rivers of the lower Indus basin in Pakistan |
| Major Threats: | Water development projects including damming that lead to habitat degradation and fragmentation, water pollution and poaching. |
| Species Name: | Irrawaddy Dolphin |
| Scientific Name: | Orcaella brevirostris |
| Conservation Status (Years Published): |
Two subpopulations in India and Thailand and three freshwater subpopulations in the Ayeyarwady, Mahakam and Mekong Rivers: Critically Endangered (2004/2008) Other subpopulations: Vulnerable (2008) The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2008: e.T15419A4579987. Downloaded on 25 April 2017. |
| Estimated Wild Population: | 10 to 100 individuals for each of the five Critical Endangered subpopulations. Around 5,800 for the Bangladesh subpopulation. Population trend is decreasing. |
| Distribution: | A discontinuous distribution in the tropical and subtropical Indo-Pacific |
| Major Threats: | Entanglement in fishing gears, habitat loss and degradation. |
| Species Name: | Spotted Seal |
| Scientific Name: | Phoca largha |
| Conservation Status (Year Published): |
Least concern (2016) Data Deficient - 2008 The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2016: e.T17023A45229806. Downloaded on 25 April 2017. |
| Estimated Wild Population: | Uncertain, perhaps 640,000. Population trend is unknown. |
| Distribution: | Breed in the Bering Sea, the Sea of Okhotsk, the Sea of Japan and China’s Yellow and Bohai Seas. Also found outside the breeding season in Chukchi Sea and Beaufort seas and range north into the Arctic Ocean. |
| Major Threats: | Subsistence hunting and historic commercial harvesting, intensive harvesting of their main prey species and habitat disturbance by oil and gas development. |
| Species Name: | Yangtze finless porpoise |
| Scientific Name: | Neophocaena asiaeorientalis spp. asiaeorientalis |
| Conservation Status (Year Published): |
Critically Endangered (2013) Endangered (1996) The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species 2013: e.T43205774A45893487. Downloaded on 25 April 2017. |
| Estimated Wild Population: | Estimated at less than 1,800 including Yangtze river mainstream, Poyang and Dongting Lakes. Population trend is decreasing. |
| Distribution: | Lower and middle reaches of the Yangtze River |
| Major Threats: | Bycatch, entanglement in fishing gears, habitat loss and degradation, boat traffic and pollution. |