Physeter macrocephalus | UAE National Red List of Mammals: Marine and Terrestrial
Taxa
Physeter macrocephalus | Linnaeus, 1758
Asessment status in full
Data deficient
Assessment status abreviation
DD
Assessment rationale/justification
In UAE waters, this species is known from only a few strandings and sightings. No information on population size and trends or on threats is available, so it is assessed as Data Deficient. No regional adjustment is made to the Data Deficient assessment.
Assessment year
2018
Assessors/contributors/reviewers listed
UAE National Red List Workshop
Affliation of assessor(s)/contributors/reviewers listed on assessment
Government
IGO
Assessor affiliation specific
Government|IGO
Criteria system specifics
IUCN v3.1
Criteria system used
IUCN
Criteria Citation
IUCN. 2012. IUCN Red List Categories and Criteria: Version 3.1, Second edition. IUCN, Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK. iv + 32pp pp. And IUCN. 2012. Guidelines for Application of IUCN Red List Criteria at Regional and National Levels: Version 4.0. Gland, Switzerland and Cambridge, UK: IUCN. iii + 41pp.
URL (link) of redlist assessment or publication
https://www.moccae.gov.ae/assets/download/b352eff1/UNRL%20of%20Mammals%20-%20Report%202019.pdf.aspx?view=true
Endemic to region
Not_assigned
Endemism Notes
Is an endemic?: Not_assigned
Threats listed in assessment
The main threats to cetaceans in UAE waters include: incidental mortality in trawl, drift and anchored gill nets, depletion of prey populations (due in part to commercial overfishing); ship and boat strikes, disturbance due to underwater noise (including that from vessel traffic, drilling, piling, military operations and seismic activity related to offshore oil and gas exploration). Evidence for human-caused mortality of sperm whales, including those caused by ship-strike and fisheries interactions, have been described from an assessment of a limited number of strandings in Oman and the UAE (Gray et al. 2017). Other potential threats in the region include sound pollution from oil exploration activities (e.g., seismic and multi-beam echo sounder surveys), and military sonar (Baldwin 2003). A lack of information (e.g. population size and trend, the location of critical habitats, and feeding ecology) hinders the development of appropriate conservation actions, but this should be used as an excuse for inaction.
Conservation Measures
Conservation measures:
Conservation measures notes:
Required conservation measures:
History
The backcasted 1996 assessment for this species is Data Deficient which matches the listing given by Hornby (1996).
Scientific Name | Kingdom | Phylum | Class | Order | Family | Genus |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Physeter macrocephalus | Animalia | Chordata | Mammalia | Cetartiodactyla | Physeteridae | Physeter |