More about the Specialist Group

Our guiding premise is that conservation ultimately depends upon good science, and the group’s credibility and value are based on maintaining high standards of scientific rigour. The advice we provide relates mainly to the status of populations, abundance, trends, the effects of current or potential threats, and the efficacy of mitigation. 

The CSG currently has 138 members worldwide who contribute significant experience and technical expertise to the growing pool of knowledge about cetaceans. With ongoing revision and debate about how they should be classified, there are currently more than 90 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.

Cetaceans are nominally protected under several international conventions and by national legislation in most countries, but they are incidentally affected by many human activities in marine and freshwater environments. Most of the conservation work by CSG members is linked, directly or indirectly, to that of other bodies or groups with shared objectives, and this makes it impossible in most instances to tease apart the influence or ‘impact’ made ‘by the CSG’ per se (other than in the case of Red Listing). It also means that the targets, activities and results reported here are only a sample of the many areas of cetacean conservation work in which members are engaged, and which they are often leading or sharing the lead with others. The CSG regularly ‘partners’ with bodies like the International Whaling Commission (IWC), Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS), US Marine Mammal Commission, other national government agencies, and NGOs responsible for conserving cetaceans. Our group’s traditional focus on Endangered and Critically Endangered small cetaceans, particularly those outside North America, Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand, continues.