How the giants of the ocean are doing

Four species of baleen whales (the Bryde’s whale, the Omura’s whale, the pygmy right whale and the Antarctic minke whale, in the picture), are listed as Data Deficient in the IUCN Red List. This means that we lack adequate information to robustly assess their status © Michael Nolan/robertharding/Corbis

How the giants of the ocean are doing

While showing a steady increase in recent years, the abundance of Antarctic blue whales (a subspecies of the blue whale) is still only 1% of what it was before whaling in the Southern Ocean © Tom Bean/Corbis

How the giants of the ocean are doing

The populations of bowhead whales in the Svalbard/Barents Sea and the Sea of Okhotsk remain at low levels despite the end of commercial exploitation © Michael Nolan/robertharding/Corbis

How the giants of the ocean are doing

The genetically distinct population of fin whales in the Mediterranean Sea is thought to include less than 4,000 individuals. Several threats (including ship strikes and pollution) affect their status in this busy and densely populated basin © Wolfgang Kaehler/CORBIS

How the giants of the ocean are doing

Gray whales have extensively recovered in the eastern Pacific. However, the western Pacific population is still in danger of extinction. With only 150 individuals remaining, it is threatened by entanglement in fishing nets and oil and gas developments around Russia’s Sakhalin Island © robertharding/Corbis

How the giants of the ocean are doing

Classified as Least Concern as a species, the humpback whale is still considered Endangered in the Arabian Sea and in Oceania © Paul Souders/Corbis

How the giants of the ocean are doing

The North Atlantic right whale, decimated by whaling, has been slow to recover due to collisions with ships and entanglement in fishing nets. It still numbers in the low hundreds © Barrett & MacKay/All Canada Photos/Corbis

How the giants of the ocean are doing

The eastern subpopulation of the North Pacific right whale is listed as Critically Endangered, since it has not recovered from the very low numbers caused by whaling © Barrett & MacKay/All Canada Photos/Corbis