Whales and Dolphins

Common Name: Cetaceans; Cétacés(Fr); Cetaceos(Sp);

Habitat: Oceanic

Facing a multitude of hazards

Seven out of the 13 great whale species are still endangered or vulnerable, even after decades of protection. Whales, dolphins and porpoises are succumbing to new and ever-increasing dangers. Collisions with ships and entanglement in fishing gear threaten the North Atlantic right whale with extinction, while the Critically Endangered Western North Pacific gray whale is at serious risk because of intensive oil and gas development in its feeding grounds.

Alarm is also growing over other hazards including toxic contamination, the effects of climate change and habitat degradation.

It's illegal, but it still happens: commercial whaling
Despite a moratorium on commercial whaling and the declaration of virtually the whole of the Southern Ocean as a whale sanctuary, each year over 1,000 whales are killed for the commercial market.

What WWF is doing
In order to help secure the future of the world's whales, WWF is developing an ambitious conservation programme for endangered whale species and populations.

Reduce the threats to increase their numbers
The WWF Cetaceans Action Plan aims to ensure that by 2012, a significant reduction of threats to cetacean populations that are either currently endangered, or are likely to become endangered in the foreseeable future, is achieved.

WWF is working for a significant reduction of threats to endangered populations of great whales as well as several smaller cetaceans.

The organization is also combating risks to whales by lobbying to bring whale hunting under the strict control of the International Whaling Commission, through field research, training and capacity building, conservation education, and by securing improved national and international action and agreements.

Through support to TRAFFIC, the wildlife trade monitoring programme of WWF and IUCN, the organisation is closely investigating and monitoring the illegal trade in whale meat.

Climate change
Warming oceans can affect the food of whales and dolphins. Large patches of tiny plants and animals that they feed on will likely move or change in abundance as climate change alters seawater temperature, winds and ocean currents.

In addition, the loss of sea ice in the Arctic and the Antarctic may affect sources of food. These changes can mean whales such as humpbacks and blues may have to migrate much further to reach feeding grounds. Longer migrations will not only have a higher energy cost for these whales, some of which have already travelled thousands of miles, but will also leave them with less time to forage for food. The shift in food availability due to climate fluctuations has already hurt the reproductive rates of the endangered North Atlantic right whale.

Learn more about climate impacts to other wildlife

Physical Description

There are over 80 species of cetaceans, a group made up of whales, dolphins and porpoises. Cetaceans are air-breathing, warm-blooded mammals that bear live young and nurse them on milk. They live their entire lives in the oceans and seas worldwide, inshore and pelagic.

Two categories of cetaceans
Cetaceans fall into two categories: mysticetes or baleen whales, and odontocetes, including toothed whales, oceanic and river dolphins, and porpoises.

Baleen whales
The baleen whales are named for their feeding apparatus, a series of transverse plates of comb-like baleen which descend from the roof of the mouth. Baleen is made of hard but flexible material, similar to that of human fingernails, rooted in the animal's upper jaw. The baleen act like a sieve, allowing a whale to strain food out of the water-food which includes small fish and plankton.

There are 13 species of baleen whales: blue, fin, sei, Bryde's, humpback, northern minke, southern minke, North Atlantic right, North Pacific right, southern right, pygmy right, bowhead, and gray. They range in size from the compact minke whale, whose average length is around 8 meters, to the gargantuan blue whale, which can reach lengths of over 33 meters and weigh up to 120 tons - as much as 32 elephants.

Toothed whales
Toothed whales, dolphins and porpoises, are a diverse group of over 70 species. They range in size from the Hector's dolphin and vaquita, both roughly 1.5 metres long when fully grown, to the mammoth 18 metre male sperm whale. Some other examples are the two species of pilot whale, beluga whale, narwhal, finless porpoise, and the rather large family of beaked whales.

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  Blue Whale

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  Bowhead Whale

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  Fin Whale

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  Ganges River Dolphin

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  Gray Whale

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  Hector's Dolphin

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  Indus River Dolphin

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  Irrawaddy Dolphin

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  Maui's Dolphin

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  North Atlantic Right Whale

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  Sei Whale

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  Vaquita