All species / Balaenoptera physalus

Balaenoptera physalus

Fin Whale · (Linnaeus, 1758)

Red List, global: VU; Vulnerable, 2018
First CITES listing: III; Appendix III, 1976, by Uruguay
CITES trade records: 506; 1980–2023 · exporter-reported
Unit dimensions: 5; reported separately, never summed
NAMMCO catch entries: 51; catch records
Seizure records: 0; reported taxon matches

One of 43: each square a species, coloured by its latest global Red List category, this one ringed. Fin Whale is among the cetaceans.

In summary derived

Balaenoptera physalus, Fin Whale, is placed in family Balaenopteridae, order Cetacea, class Mammalia. It was first listed in Appendix III in 1976, by Uruguay. The earliest CITES listing row the corpus holds for it is Appendix I, dated 1981, a later entry than the 1976 listing. The corpus records 4 dated listing rows in total.

Its latest global Red List assessment is Vulnerable, published 2018. It carries 4 earlier global assessments on the current scale and 5 on scales that were superseded before the current categories and cannot be compared with them. An assessment at Europe scope records Least Concern. This site reports the global category; the two are not interchangeable.

The corpus holds 506 exporter-reported CITES trade records for it, from 1980 to 2023, reported across 5 unit dimensions. The most frequently recorded term is specimens: 195 records across 5 unit dimensions, of which 143 are measured in specimens. NAMMCO records 51 catch entries, from 1992 to 2023, totalling 1,348 animals reported by NAMMCO member countries, counting each year's area reports, or its national total where the year reports no area. Attribution is by the taxon name each report gave. No seizure record in the corpus is attributed to it.

Composed from 20 corpus fields, by template, with no model

species.class
species.family
species.order_name
species_catch.catch_total
species_catch.year
species_iucn.is_global
species_iucn.scope_code
species_iucn.status
species_iucn.year_published
species_listing.appendix
species_listing.listing_date
species_listing_event.appendix
species_listing_event.event_date
species_seizure.*
species_trade.dimension
species_trade.first_year
species_trade.last_year
species_trade.record_count
species_trade.reporter_type
species_trade.term

Each sentence is generated from the columns above and nothing else. The same corpus produces the same text every time. Where a field is absent the sentence is omitted rather than hedged.

Overview curated

Taxonomy entered by a named curator and versioned in the repository.

Class: Mammalia
Order: Cetacea
Family: Balaenopteridae
First CITES listing: 19764 listing rows; later ones are amendments
Global Red List status: VUVulnerable, assessed 2018
Regional status (Europe): LCRegional, 2023. Not the species status.

1 subpopulations are assessed separately

A single status for this species does not describe them: Mediterranean subpopulation.

Content withheld pending expert review

8 narrative sections for this species were machine-drafted and are not shown. No subject expert has reviewed and signed them.

Trade derived

CITES Trade Database v2025.1, extracted 13 June 2025.

There is no single trade total

Quantities are reported per unit dimension, per traded term, and per reporting side. These are not additive: kilograms and individual animals have no common unit, a live animal is not a carving, and an importer report and an exporter report are two accounts of one shipment rather than two shipments.

Figures below are exporter-reported.

count in specimens: 348 records, 69%
mass in kg: 140 records, 28%
volume in L: 9 records, 2%
packaging in containers: 7 records, 1%
area in m²: 2 records, <1%

Records per dimension. Not additive across units.

Trade over time

Peak 40 records in 2009. Trade records per year, exporter-reported, every term and unit counted as records, not quantities.

Peak 1,283 specimens in 2015. Quantity of specimens, the term with most records (143), in specimens, exporter-reported. Other terms are in the tables below, each in its own unit.

count measured in specimens

348 of 506 records carry a quantity in specimens. CITES leaves the unit blank to mean a count of the term.

specimens143

bones87

carvings46

baleen35

garments15

teeth9

bone pieces3

skin pieces2

Top 8 of 16. Bars count trade records per term, not specimens, all sources combined; the table splits them by source and gives the quantity in specimens.

Term	Quantity	Records	Years	Source
specimens	6,859 specimens	136	1990–2023	W
bones	257 specimens	56	1988–2021	W
bones	32 specimens	30	1991–2023	O
carvings	84 specimens	26	1989–2010	W
carvings	27 specimens	20	1991–2000	O
baleen	18 specimens	18	2010–2023	O
baleen	75 specimens	17	2006–2022	W
garments	15 specimens	15	2015	O
teeth	8 specimens	5	1992–1998	O
teeth	4 specimens	3	1990	not recorded
specimens	117 specimens	3	1991–2022	O
specimens	220 specimens	3	2015–2021	X

Showing the 12 term and source combinations with the most records, of 26.

mass measured in kg

140 of 506 records carry a quantity in kg.

meat95

specimens35

bones4

baleen3

skins1

carvings1

skin pieces1

Bars count trade records per term, not kg, all sources combined; the table splits them by source and gives the quantity in kg.

Term	Quantity	Records	Years	Source
meat	13,351,706.8 kg	95	1990–2021	W
specimens	165,237.21 kg	34	1991–2021	W
bones	173.41 kg	4	2005–2015	W
baleen	23 kg	3	2010–2018	W
specimens	42 kg	1	1985	not recorded
skins	0.00300 kg	1	2013	W
carvings	1.3 kg	1	2012	W
skin pieces	0.00320 kg	1	2019	W

volume measured in L

9 of 506 records carry a quantity in L.

Term	Quantity	Records	Years	Source
specimens	910.09 L	9	2009–2020	W

packaging measured in containers

7 of 506 records carry a quantity in containers.

specimens6

carvings1

Bars count trade records per term, not containers, all sources combined; the table splits them by source and gives the quantity in containers.

Term	Quantity	Records	Years	Source
specimens	17 containers	6	1998–2006	W
carvings	1 container	1	2005	W

One smaller unit: m² (2 records)

area measured in m²

2 of 506 records carry a quantity in m². Area is the surface of the item traded as the Party reported it, for example a skin sample in square centimetres; every area unit is converted to m².

Term	Quantity	Records	Years	Source
specimens	0.00200 m²	2	2003–2006	W

CITES listings curated

CoP decisions, cross-checked against the appendix reported on trade records.

First listed on 1976-07-14, in Appendix III by Uruguay, from the CITES listing history. The table below holds the species' current listing entries, which begin later; earlier coverage is often under a higher taxon.

Date	Appendix	Annotation	Status
1981-06-06	I	none	earliest current entry
1981-06-06	I	All stocks.	amendment
1981-06-06	I	Stocks in (A) N. Atlantic off Iceland and (B) off Newfoundland; (C) stock in area from 40°S to the Antarctic continent, from 120°W to 60°W.	amendment
2000-04-02	I	none	amendment

Convention on Migratory Species

Listed under CMS: Appendix I, Appendix II. Also covered by ACCOBAMS, Pacific Islands Cetaceans, which are separate instruments with their own annexes.

IUCN Red List derived

Assessment history. Scope is always stated: a regional assessment is not the species status.

This history crosses a criteria revision

Categories from before 2001 come from earlier Red List systems. Three kinds are kept apart.

LR/lc and LR/nt are the modern LC and NT under their old names, so they are plotted as those categories and the line runs through them: nothing changed but the wording.

LR/cd was discontinued with no successor. This project reads it as Near Threatened, following a published crosswalk between the old and new Red List systems, and the chart marks such a point hollow and names both codes, because placing a category is not the same as finding it published.

The pre-1994 codes (E, V, K, T and the rest) are not on the risk order at all, so they sit below the axis and the line breaks across them. A category change across a criteria revision is not a change in extinction risk, and none of these is scored as a movement: the ledger refuses every one of them at gate 3.

published global assessment
not on this scale (below the axis)
regional assessment, never joined

Vertical position is the IUCN risk order, not a measured quantity: the gaps between categories are equal on the page and not in nature. Anything that is not one of the nine modern categories carries no position on that order — Data Deficient, a superseded category, or a record that no assessment was made — so it sits below the axis and the line breaks across it rather than joining through. Each point names which it is. Regional assessments are shown but never joined to global ones; they describe a different population. The dashed step crosses the 2001 revision of the Red List criteria: the category codes on either side match, the criteria behind them do not, so the step is shown and not measured.

Category movement since listing: not scored. Gate 3: the baseline category V comes from a pre-2001 Red List system and is not on the modern ordinal scale. How this is defined and why some species are not scored

Year	Category	Meaning	Scope	Status
2023	LC	Least Concern	Europe	current for this scope
2018	VU	Vulnerable	Global	current for this scope
2013	EN	Endangered	Global
2008	EN	Endangered	Global
2007	NT	Near Threatened	Global
1996	EN	Endangered	Global
1994	V	Vulnerable (pre-1994 criteria)	Global
1990	V	Vulnerable (pre-1994 criteria)	Global
1988	V	Vulnerable (pre-1994 criteria)	Global
1986	V	Vulnerable (pre-1994 criteria)	Global
1965	N/A	Not applicable	Global

Reported catch derived

NAMMCO catch exports dated 11 June 2025. A reported zero is stored as zero, distinct from an unknown.

Year	Area	Catch	Quota
2023	East Greenland - West Iceland	24	193
2023	West	3	19
2022	East Greenland - West Iceland	148	193
2022	West	3	19
2021	East Greenland - West Iceland	0	193
2021	West	2	19
2020	East Greenland - West Iceland	0	161
2020	West	3	19
2019	Iceland	0	161
2019	West	8	19
2018	Iceland	146	161
2018	West	7	19
2017	Iceland	0	175
2017	West	8	19
2016	Iceland	0	146
2016	West	10	19
2015	Iceland	155	171
2015	West	12	19
2014	Iceland	137	154
2014	West	12	19
2013	Iceland	134	154
2013	West	9	19
2012	Iceland	0	154
2012	West	5	10
2011	Iceland	0	154
2011	West	5	10
2010	Iceland	148	150
2010	West	6	10
2009	Iceland	125	150
2009	West	10	19
2008	Iceland	0	none
2008	West	14	19
2007	Iceland	0	none
2007	West	12	10
2006	Iceland (EGI)	7	none
2006	West	10	10
2005	West	13	19
2004	West	13	19
2003	West	9	19
2002	West	13	19

Showing 40 of 51 records.

Illegal trade seizures derived

Seizure records whose reported taxon resolves to this species.

What the seizure source records

No seizure in the compilation names this species. Matching is on the taxon the source reported, case aside. Across the whole compilation, 225 of 919 rows match one of the 43 species and the rest name other taxa.

Quantities are unitless. The source gives no date or place, so the table shows the product and the reported taxon.

No seizure records attributed to this species.

References withheld

Machine-proposed bindings. Shown only where an expert has signed the profile and the binding is live.

No references are recorded for this species: none is shown, and none was machine-proposed for review.

Timeline curated

Curated events. Those with no corroborating table in this database are marked.

Date	Event	Type	Corroboration
2023	IUCN Red List Assessment (2023)	iucn_assessment	checked against `iucn_assessments`
2022-05-13	CITES Trade Suspension	cites_suspension	curated
2019-08-13	CITES Trade Suspension	cites_suspension	curated
2018-03-19	CITES Trade Suspension	cites_suspension	curated
2018	IUCN Red List Assessment (2018)	iucn_assessment	checked against `iucn_assessments`
2015-04-09	CITES Trade Suspension	cites_suspension	curated
2013	IUCN Red List Assessment (2013)	iucn_assessment	checked against `iucn_assessments`
2008	IUCN Red List Assessment (2008)	iucn_assessment	checked against `iucn_assessments`
2007	IUCN Red List Assessment (2007)	iucn_assessment	checked against `iucn_assessments`
2006-01-16	CITES Trade Suspension	cites_suspension	curated
2003-06-15	CITES Trade: specimens	cites_trade	checked against `cites_trade_records`
2002-06-15	CITES Trade: specimens	cites_trade	checked against `cites_trade_records`
2000-04-02	Listed in CITES Appendix I	cites_listing	checked against `cites_listings`
1996	IUCN Red List Assessment (1996)	iucn_assessment	checked against `iucn_assessments`
1994	IUCN Red List Assessment (1994)	iucn_assessment	checked against `iucn_assessments`
1990	IUCN Red List Assessment (1990)	iucn_assessment	checked against `iucn_assessments`
1988	IUCN Red List Assessment (1988)	iucn_assessment	checked against `iucn_assessments`
1986	IUCN Red List Assessment (1986)	iucn_assessment	checked against `iucn_assessments`
1981-06-06	Listed in CITES Appendix I	cites_listing	checked against `cites_listings`
1981-06-06	Listed in CITES Appendix I	cites_listing	checked against `cites_listings`
1981-06-06	Listed in CITES Appendix I	cites_listing	checked against `cites_listings`
1965	IUCN Red List Assessment (1965)	iucn_assessment	checked against `iucn_assessments`

Events marked curated are not matched by a row in a corroborating table, either because none applies or because the table holds no such row, and rest on the curator alone. They are shown, and marked, rather than presented as equivalent to a table-checked fact.