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Eschrichtius robustus

Gray Whale

Eschrichtius robustus, Gray Whale
(c) aidanm23, some rights reserved (CC BY-NC) · via inaturalist, stored and served from this site
Red List, global
LC
Least Concern, 2018
First CITES listing
I
Appendix I, 1975
CITES trade records
127
1984–2023 · exporter-reported
Unit dimensions
3
reported separately, never summed
NAMMCO catch entries
none
NAMMCO reports a subset of marine mammals
Seizure records
12
reported taxon matches

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

In summary derived

Eschrichtius robustus, Gray Whale, is placed in family Eschrichtiidae, order Cetacea, class Mammalia. The earliest CITES listing row the corpus holds for it is Appendix I, dated 1975. The corpus records 1 dated listing row in total.

Its latest global Red List assessment is Least Concern, published 2018. It carries 1 earlier global assessment on the current scale and 1 on a scale that was superseded before the current categories and cannot be compared with them. An assessment at Europe scope records Regionally Extinct. This site reports the global category; the two are not interchangeable.

The corpus holds 127 exporter-reported CITES trade records for it, from 1984 to 2023, reported across 3 unit dimensions. The most frequently recorded term is specimens: 74 records across 3 unit dimensions, of which 71 are measured in specimens. The corpus holds no NAMMCO catch records for it. 12 seizure records are attributed to it, being those whose reported taxon matches the species.

Composed from 17 corpus fields, by template, with no model
  • species.class
  • species.family
  • species.order_name
  • species_catch.catch_total
  • species_iucn.is_global
  • species_iucn.scope_code
  • species_iucn.status
  • species_iucn.year_published
  • species_listing.appendix
  • species_listing.listing_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
Eschrichtiidae
First CITES listing
1975
Global Red List status
LCLeast Concern, assessed 2018
Regional status (Europe)
RERegional, 2023. Not the species status.
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
123
mass in kg
3
volume in L
1

Records per dimension. Not additive across units.

Trade over time

listed 19751984: 1 records1985: 1 records1995: 4 records1996: 1 records1997: 3 records1998: 3 records1999: 7 records2000: 2 records2001: 2 records2002: 1 records2003: 5 records2004: 4 records2005: 6 records2006: 1 records2007: 3 records2008: 8 records2009: 11 records2010: 10 records2011: 6 records2012: 4 records2013: 4 records2014: 6 records2015: 8 records2016: 7 records2017: 2 records2018: 5 records2019: 1 records2022: 3 records2023: 8 records19801990200020102020
Peak 11 records in 2009. Trade records per year, exporter-reported, every term and unit counted as records, not quantities.
listed 19751984: 40 specimens1985: 42 specimens1995: 4 specimens1996: 9 specimens1997: 238 specimens1999: 173 specimens2000: 21 specimens2001: 2 specimens2002: 123 specimens2003: 288 specimens2004: 15 specimens2005: 33 specimens2006: 25 specimens2007: 34 specimens2008: 1 specimens2009: 32 specimens2010: 72 specimens2011: 54 specimens2012: 94 specimens2013: 11 specimens2014: 329 specimens2015: 3 specimens2017: 487 specimens2018: 201 specimens2022: 35 specimens2023: 450 specimens19801990200020102020
Peak 487 specimens in 2017. Quantity of specimens, the term with most records (71), in specimens, exporter-reported. Other terms are in the tables below, each in its own unit.

count measured in specimens

123 of 127 records carry a quantity in specimens. CITES leaves the unit blank to mean a count of the term.

Top 8 of 13. Bars count trade records per term, not specimens, all sources combined; the table splits them by source and gives the quantity in specimens.
TermQuantityRecordsYearsSource
specimens2,734 specimens691995–2023W
carvings23 specimens151995–2010O
bones9 specimens92009–2015O
bone carvings5 specimens52016O
baleen51 specimens32009–2019W
skin pieces51 specimens31998–2015W
specimens82 specimens21984–1985not recorded
bone pieces3 specimens22003–2016O
bones2 specimens21998W
carvings2 specimens22004–2011W
skeletons2 specimens22009–2010W
baleen1 specimen12010I

Showing the 12 term and source combinations with the most records, of 20.

mass measured in kg

3 of 127 records carry a quantity in kg.

Bars count trade records per term, not kg, all sources combined; the table splits them by source and gives the quantity in kg.
TermQuantityRecordsYearsSource
specimens0.5 kg22004–2018W
meat10 kg11995W
One smaller unit: L (1 record)

volume measured in L

1 of 127 records carry a quantity in L.

TermQuantityRecordsYearsSource
specimens0.02 L12010W

CITES listings curated

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

DateAppendixAnnotationStatus
1975-07-01IGray whale - Appendix I listing covers all populationsfirst listing

Convention on Migratory Species

Not CMS-listed. Covered by ACCOBAMS, a daughter agreement with its own annexes, not a CMS appendix listing.

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.

LCNTVUENCR19962000201020231996: LR/cd, Lower Risk, conservation dependent (1994 system, discontinued 2001) (global). Placed at Near Threatened by the crosswalk this project adopted (Lin et al. 2025, doi:10.1111/cobi.70103); the category IUCN published is LR/cd.2008: Least Concern (global)2018: Least Concern (global)2023: Regionally Extinct, assessed at Europe scope, not the global statusEurope2007: Regionally Extinct, assessed at Europe scope, not the global statusEuropeLCNTVUENCR19962000201020231996: LR/cd, Lower Risk, conservation dependent (1994 system, discontinued 2001) (global). Placed at Near Threatened by the crosswalk this project adopted (Lin et al. 2025, doi:10.1111/cobi.70103); the category IUCN published is LR/cd.2008: Least Concern (global)2018: Least Concern (global)2023: Regionally Extinct, assessed at Europe scope, not the global statusEurope2007: Regionally Extinct, assessed at Europe scope, not the global statusEurope
  • published global assessment
  • placed on the scale by a crosswalk
  • 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. One point is hollow: the category was discontinued with no successor and is placed on this scale by the crosswalk this project adopted (Lin et al. 2025, doi:10.1111/cobi.70103), not published on it. The code IUCN published is in the table below and in the point's own label. Regional assessments are shown but never joined to global ones; they describe a different population.

Category movement since listing: not scored. Gate 3: the baseline category LR/cd comes from a pre-2001 Red List system and is not on the modern ordinal scale. Lower Risk, conservation dependent (1994 system, discontinued 2001). How this is defined and why some species are not scored

YearCategoryMeaningScopeStatus
2023RERegionally ExtinctEuropecurrent for this scope
2018LCLeast ConcernGlobalcurrent for this scope
2008LCLeast ConcernGlobal
2007RERegionally ExtinctEurope (scope corrected)
1996LR/cdLower Risk, conservation dependent (1994 system, discontinued 2001)Global

Reported catch derived

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

No NAMMCO catch records for this species. NAMMCO reports on a subset of marine mammals, so an absence here is expected for most species and does not mean no catch occurred.

Illegal trade seizures derived

Seizure records whose reported taxon resolves to this species.

What the seizure source records

12 seizure records name this species. Matching is on the taxon the source reported, case aside, and each record below shows the reported name, so a match that is not literal can be seen for what it is. 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.

Records per product, not a quantity.
ProductReported as
baleenEschrichtius robustus
baleeneschrichtius robustus
bone carvingEschrichtius robustus
bone pieceEschrichtius robustus
bone producteschrichtius robustus
carvingEschrichtius robustus
meateschrichtius robustus
meatEschrichtius robustus
skin pieceeschrichtius robustus
skin pieceEschrichtius robustus
specimenEschrichtius robustus
specimeneschrichtius robustus

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.

DateEventTypeCorroboration
2023IUCN Red List Assessment (2023)iucn_assessmentchecked against iucn_assessments
2018IUCN Red List Assessment (2018)iucn_assessmentchecked against iucn_assessments
2008IUCN Red List Assessment (2008)iucn_assessmentchecked against iucn_assessments
2007IUCN Red List Assessment (2007)iucn_assessmentchecked against iucn_assessments
1996IUCN Red List Assessment (1996)iucn_assessmentchecked against iucn_assessments
1975-07-01Listed in CITES Appendix Icites_listingchecked against cites_listings