SSC Specialist Group Profile: The Cetacean Specialist Group (CSG)

Group overview
The members
News release for the release of the Cetacean Action Plan (with links to plan online)

The Cetacean Specialist Group (CSG)

Expert advice for science-based conservation

Since the 1960s, the Cetacean Specialist Group (CSG) has played a major role in identifying problems of conservation of the world's dolphins, whales and porpoises, and brokering approaches to their solution. Some progress has been made in cetacean conservation, but grave threats to the continued existence of many species still exist and some are worsening. The baiji, vaquita and North Atlantic right whale are near extinction. Local populations of other species have disappeared or are seriously threatened. The global situation is outlined in Dolphins, Whales and Porpoises: 2002-2010 Conservation Action Plan for the World's Cetaceans produced by the group in 2003 and published by SSC. This provides scientific information about the current status of cetaceans worldwide; identifies threats to their survival, and recommends specific conservation actions.

The CSG recognizes the increasing role that conservation biologists must take in the real world of interactions between society and wildlife says former group chair William Perrin. "Social, economic and political factors will determine what we have left in a few years and we need to understand and address those factors. If we don't speak up, if we don't go out of our way to prod and assist the managers, there will be no hope for continued abundance and diversity of whales, dolphins and porpoises," he says in the Action Plan's foreword.

Providing expert advice for science-based conservation, the Group has made a substantial contribution towards establishing and promoting critical priorities. It is proud of its achievements but also recognizes that its role is really only the first step, and that cetacean conservation depends on the efforts of governments, NGOs, and local communities to take the conservation process to the next level of saving species and populations. Collaborations between the CSG and other groups is essential if progress is to be made.

The Group has over 75 members worldwide contributing significant experience and expertise to the growing pool of knowledge about cetaceans. With ongoing revision and debate about how they should be classified, there are currently 86 recognised cetacean species. These animals live in a variety of habitats, from the high seas far beyond the national jurisdiction of any country, to the shallow freshwater rivers, lakes and coastal waters of southern Asia and South America. Some species are highly migratory, requiring vast areas of ocean to move between feeding and calving waters, whilst others reside in particular sections of rivers and coastal waters.

Although the great whales such as the blue, humpback, sperm and right whales which receive a lot of attention are important to the Group's mission, the CSG focuses more on smaller species, often lesser-known and in developing countries, that are particularly threatened with extinction.

The members

Yvette Razafindrakoto
Yvette Razafindrakoto is a Conservation Biologist with The Wildlife Conservation Society in Madagascar. Over the last eight years, Yvette has been working with Dr. Howard Rosenbaum on conservation of humpback whales and other cetaceans in Antongil Bay Madagascar. Yvette has been an active member of the recently developed Indo-South Atlantic Consortium on Humpback Whales, and took part in the Consortium's first workshop and surveys off South Africa. She has presented papers at several Biennial meetings and co-authored reports to the Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission. Yvettte also published the first scholarly paper written about songs of humpback whales from Madagascar in Marine Mammal Science in 2001.

Yvette recently started her Ph.D. with the University of Antananarivo on life history and acoustic variation among the humpback whales of Madagascar. Over the next two years, she will spend several semesters working at universities in the United States and with colleagues at The Wildlife Conservation Society and American Museum of Natural History. As part of her dissertation research, Yvette will examine population structure and social organization of humpbacks from Antongil Bay and other wintering areas using integrated photographic and acoustic analyses. She has also been involved in a variety of cetacean conservation projects including the promotion of sound whale-watching in Madagascar, determining migratory movements of humpback whales between Antongil Bay and areas in southern Madagascar, developing training materials for cetacean conservation to be used in developing countries, investigating the status of Madagascar's Indo-Pacific humpback dolphin populations, and evaluating the conservation impact of hunting and by-catch of small cetaceans in Madagascar's coastal waters.

Anouk Ilangakoon
Anouk Ilangakoon has been carrying out studies on cetaceans in the waters around Sri Lanka since 1985. She was inspired by what she describes as one of those "gotcha" moments while watching a group of leaping spinner dolphins lit by the first rays of the morning sun. Anouk accomplished much of her early work under the guidance of the late Stephen Leatherwood, former Chair of the CSG, while working with him on a United Nations Environment Programme-sponsored research programme in the Indian Ocean Cetacean Sanctuary, established by the International Whaling Commission in 1979. Anouk has a Masters Degree in Environmental Science. Her thesis was on species diversity, fisheries bycatch and direct catches of small cetaceans off the west coast of Sri Lanka. She was co-coordinator for a regional marine initiative and tri-partite marine environment programme initiated by the Indian Ocean Marine Affairs Co-operation Programme in the mid-1990s. As part of this program she worked with researchers from the New England Aquarium on the Right Whale Research Project in the waters off Maine, USA. Subsequently she worked for the Marine and Coastal Programme of IUCN Sri Lanka. Anouk recently published the first guidebook on the whales and dolphins of Sri Lanka. This provides detailed descriptions of the 26 species identified so far as occurring in Sri Lanka's waters. In the preface she says that she hopes the book "will help stir the curiosity of like-minded people, especially those of the younger generation"….who .…"will carry forward in Sri Lanka what those in my generation have only been able to begin."

Giovanni Bearzi
Giovanni Bearzi has carried out research on Mediterranean coastal dolphins since 1986. He soon discovered that these animals are not only fascinating and highly-evolved creatures, but often critically endangered mammals striving to survive in habitats that have been heavily affected by human activities. Alarmed by the lack of interest and knowledge on free-ranging cetacean populations, he founded and directed for a decade, a dolphin research and conservation programme in Croatia, that was awarded the Henry Ford European Conservation Award as best European project overall. He then moved to Venice, Italy, where he created a dolphin research and information center for the management of dolphin projects conducted by the Tethys Research Institute. Giovanni combines consistent scientific work with intense public awareness and conservation activities, favouring a precautionary approach to conserving Mediterranean biodiversity. He has trained dozens of assistants and volunteers and has supervised a number of students working in several Mediterranean areas. In 2003 he earned a PhD Summa cum Laude in Zoology at the University of Basel, Switzerland, with a thesis on Mediterranean coastal dolphins. Since 1990 he has been a Board Member of the Tethys Research Institute and in 2001 he became the President of Tethys. He is also the director of the Ionian Dolphin Project and the Venice Dolphin Project, aimed at coastal dolphin conservation in the Ionian Sea and in the Adriatic Sea, respectively. Giovanni enjoys teaching "Cetacean Conservation" as contract professor at the Faculty of Environmental Sciences, University of Venice. In 2001 he was awarded a Pew Marine Conservation Fellowship.

Danielle Kreb
Danielle Kreb has been involved in research and conservation efforts for Irrawaddy dolphins in the Mahakam River of Kalimantan, Indonesia since 1997. After conducting a preliminary survey she realized that the population was in danger of going extinct. She also found from interview surveys that the local people generally regard the dolphins favourably. This convinced her that something could still be done to save the population but that the lack of credible information on abundance, distribution and threats prevented the application of conservation measures that balance the needs of humans with those of dolphins. In 1999, Danielle began a Ph.D. at the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics at the University of Amsterdam with her thesis on the conservation biology of the Mahakam dolphin population. Shortly after starting her degree she collaborated with local conservationists in Kalimantan to establish the Conservation Foundation for the Protection of Rare Aquatic Species of Indonesia (RASI). Before becoming a member of the CSG, Danielle successfully collaborated with the group on a proposal to Red List the Mahakam Irrawaddy dolphin population as Critically Endangered, due to its isolation, small population size and high mortality from entanglement in gillnets. After taking a short break in her native country, The Netherlands, to have a baby daughter, Jannah, she is currently in the midst of establishing an environmental education centre that will provide local residents, governmental officials and national and international tourists with information on the dolphins and their conservation importance. While the work of many CSG members has been to conduct research, make conservation recommendations and then move on to address other populations or species, Danielle's strategy has been to "dig in" for the long-term and establish and nurture a site-base conservation programme for "her" population. Danielle's strengths lie in her infectious enthusiasm and her commitment towards ensuring that the Mahakam dolphin population will persist for many years to come.

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