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All species / Eubalaena japonica

Eubalaena japonica

North Pacific Right Whale

Eubalaena japonica, North Pacific Right Whale
(c) Mark Hoffman and Bruce Long, some rights reserved (CC BY-SA) · via inaturalist, stored and served from this site
Red List, global
EN
Endangered, 2018
First CITES listing
I
Appendix I, 1975
CITES trade records
5
2009–2023 · exporter-reported
Unit dimensions
1
reported separately, never summed
NAMMCO catch entries
none
NAMMCO reports a subset of marine mammals
Seizure records
0
reported taxon matches

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

In summary derived

Eubalaena japonica, North Pacific Right Whale, is placed in family Balaenidae, 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 Endangered, published 2018. It carries 3 earlier global assessments on the current scale.

The corpus holds 5 exporter-reported CITES trade records for it, from 2009 to 2023, reported across 1 unit dimension. The most frequently recorded term is specimens (4 records). The corpus holds no NAMMCO catch records for it. No seizure record in the corpus is attributed to it.

Composed from 16 corpus fields, by template, with no model
  • species.class
  • species.family
  • species.order_name
  • species_catch.catch_total
  • species_iucn.is_global
  • 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
Balaenidae
First CITES listing
1975
Global Red List status
ENEndangered, assessed 2018
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.

Trade over time

listed 19752009: 1 records2014: 1 records2018: 1 records2022: 1 records2023: 1 records19801990200020102020
Peak 1 records in 2009. Trade records per year, exporter-reported, every term and unit counted as records, not quantities.
listed 19752009: 1 specimens2014: 1 specimens2022: 6 specimens2023: 3 specimens19801990200020102020
Peak 6 specimens in 2022. Quantity of specimens, the term with most records (4), in specimens, exporter-reported. Other terms are in the tables below, each in its own unit.

count measured in specimens

5 of 5 records carry a quantity in specimens. CITES leaves the unit blank to mean a count of the term.

Bars count trade records per term, not specimens, all sources combined; the table splits them by source and gives the quantity in specimens.
TermQuantityRecordsYearsSource
specimens11 specimens42009–2023W
carvings0.5 specimens †12018O

† Not a whole number. A count cannot have a fraction, so some records under carvings carry a quantity with its unit left blank that is not a count, most likely a weight or a measure. The total is shown as the Parties reported it.

CITES listings curated

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

DateAppendixAnnotationStatus
1975-07-01I[GENUS listing Eubalaena spp.] Formerly included in Balaena spp.first listing

Convention on Migratory Species

Listed under CMS: Appendix I.

IUCN Red List derived

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

LCNTVUENCR19962000201020181996: Endangered (global) 2 assessments share this position; they are listed separately in the table below.2008: Endangered (global)2018: Endangered (global)LCNTVUENCR19962000201020181996: Endangered (global) 2 assessments share this position; they are listed separately in the table below.2008: Endangered (global)2018: Endangered (global)
  • published global assessment
Vertical position is the IUCN risk order, not a measured quantity: the gaps between categories are equal on the page and not in nature. 4 global assessments are drawn at 3 positions: one position carries more than one assessment of the same category in the same year, and the table below lists them separately. 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 4: the baseline was published in 1996, before the 2001 criteria revision. The category code is on the modern scale but the criteria behind it are not. How this is defined and why some species are not scored

YearCategoryMeaningScopeStatus
2018ENEndangeredGlobalcurrent for this scope
2008ENEndangeredGlobal
1996ENEndangeredGlobal
1996ENEndangeredGlobala republished version of the 1996 assessment

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

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.

DateEventTypeCorroboration
2018IUCN Red List Assessment (2018)iucn_assessmentchecked against iucn_assessments
2008IUCN Red List Assessment (2008)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