Sperm Whale
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Sperm Whale Conservation Status

Sperm whale conservation status (Physeter macrocephalus)
The Sperm whale is included in the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species and its conservation status is considered to be Vulnerable (VU). When an animal is listed as VU, it means that it is facing a high risk of extinction in the wild in the medium-term future. VU is one of the least series classifications on the Red List, but it is naturally still a serious problem and action must be taken if we want to have a thriving Sperm whale population in the future.

The IUCN Red List of Threatened Species place 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)

There are several major threats that can worsen the conservative status for the Sperm whale. It is still harvested as food, e.g. by the Japanese. Fishing nets also kill a significant number of Sperm whales each year. Fishing is not only having a direct impact on the population; it also creates problems for the future. Since large adult whales are popular among fishermen, a lot of large adults are removed from the population. The reduction of large males is believed to have reduced the pregnancy rates in the females, and the reduction of old females from matricentric pods has removed important skills from these pods and caused the remaining animals to be less well equipped to survive. In addition to deliberate hunting, Sperm whales can easily get entangled in so called “ghost nets” or be caught and landed as bycatch by fisheries. Accidents are also quite common, such as ship strikes.