All species / Phocoena phocoena

Phocoena phocoena

Harbour Porpoise

Red List, global: LC; Least Concern, 2023
First CITES listing: II; Appendix II, 1979
CITES trade records: 401; 1980–2023 · exporter-reported
Unit dimensions: 4; reported separately, never summed
NAMMCO catch entries: 93; catch records
Seizure records: 1; reported taxon matches

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

In summary derived

Phocoena phocoena, Harbour Porpoise, is placed in family Phocoenidae, order Cetacea, class Mammalia. It was first listed in Appendix II in 1979. The earliest CITES listing row the corpus holds for it is Appendix II, dated 2003, a later entry than the 1979 listing. The corpus records 1 dated listing row in total.

Its latest global Red List assessment is Least Concern, published 2023. It carries 4 earlier global assessments on the current scale and 3 on scales that were superseded before the current categories and cannot be compared with them.

The corpus holds 401 exporter-reported CITES trade records for it, from 1980 to 2023, reported across 4 unit dimensions. The most frequently recorded term is specimens: 279 records across 4 unit dimensions, of which 230 are measured in specimens. NAMMCO records 93 catch entries, from 1992 to 2023, totalling 74,429 animals reported by NAMMCO member countries, counting each year's area reports, or its national total where the year reports no area. 10 of those entries report no number and are not in that total. Attribution is by the taxon name each report gave. 1 seizure record is attributed to it, being the one whose reported taxon matches the species.

Composed from 19 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.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: Phocoenidae
First CITES listing: 1979
Global Red List status: LCLeast Concern, assessed 2023
Regional status (Europe): LCRegional, 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: 312 records, 78%
mass in kg: 85 records, 21%
volume in L: 3 records, <1%
packaging in containers: 1 record, <1%

Records per dimension. Not additive across units.

Trade over time

Peak 26 records in 2015. Trade records per year, exporter-reported, every term and unit counted as records, not quantities.

Peak 2,219 specimens in 2010. Quantity of specimens, the term with most records (230), in specimens, exporter-reported. Other terms are in the tables below, each in its own unit.

count measured in specimens

312 of 401 records carry a quantity in specimens. CITES leaves the unit blank to mean a count of the term.

specimens230

teeth29

bones21

bodies12

skulls8

live5

bone pieces2

skeletons2

Top 8 of 11. 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	16,577 specimens	210	1988–2023	W
specimens	503 specimens	20	1982–2004	not recorded
teeth	1,476 specimens	19	1990–2023	W
bones	18 specimens	13	1999–2017	W
bones	585 specimens	8	1996–2017	O
bodies	7 specimens	6	1983–1993	not recorded
bodies	32 specimens	6	1997–2010	W
teeth	1,058 specimens	5	1989–1990	not recorded
teeth	22 specimens	5	2014–2021	O
skulls	5 specimens	5	1993–2022	W
live	10 specimens	3	1980–1981	not recorded
skulls	26 specimens	3	1983–1990	not recorded

Showing the 12 term and source combinations with the most records, of 19.

mass measured in kg

85 of 401 records carry a quantity in kg.

specimens45

meat37

bones2

teeth1

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
specimens	114.78 kg	38	1996–2023	W
meat	320.4 kg	37	2005–2017	W
specimens	2.95 kg	6	1990–1998	not recorded
bones	7 kg	2	2010–2011	W
specimens	68.46 kg	1	1997	F
teeth	2.9 kg	1	2014	W

2 smaller units: L (3 records), containers (1 record)

volume measured in L

3 of 401 records carry a quantity in L.

Term	Quantity	Records	Years	Source
specimens	1.43 L	3	2012–2019	W

packaging measured in containers

1 of 401 records carry a quantity in containers.

Term	Quantity	Records	Years	Source
specimens	11 containers	1	1990	not recorded

CITES listings curated

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

First listed on 1979-06-28, in Appendix II, 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
2003-02-13	II	[ORDER listing Cetacea spp.] Included in Appendix II, except for the species included in Appendix I. A zero annual export quota has been established for live specimens from the Black Sea population of Tursiops truncatus removed from the wild and traded for primarily commercial purposes.	earliest current entry

Convention on Migratory Species

Listed under CMS: Appendix II, Appendix II, Appendix II, Appendix I. Also covered by ACCOBAMS, ASCOBANS, Western African Aquatic Mammals, 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 K comes from a pre-2001 Red List system and is not on the modern ordinal scale. Insufficiently Known (pre-1994; not a risk category). How this is defined and why some species are not scored

Year	Category	Meaning	Scope	Status
2023	LC	Least Concern	Global	current for this scope
2023	LC	Least Concern	Europe	current for this scope
2020	LC	Least Concern	Global
2008	LC	Least Concern	Global
2007	VU	Vulnerable	Global
1996	VU	Vulnerable	Global
1994	K	Insufficiently Known (pre-1994; not a risk category)	Global
1990	K	Insufficiently Known (pre-1994; not a risk category)	Global
1988	K	Insufficiently Known (pre-1994; not a risk category)	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	Total	3,619	none
2022	Total	3,199	none
2021	Total	2,969	none
2020	East	2	none
2020	Total	3,331	none
2020	West	3,329	none
2019	East	4	none
2019	Faroe Islands	unknown	none
2019	Total	2,778	none
2019	West	2,774	none
2018	East	8	none
2018	Faroe Islands	unknown	none
2018	Total	2,890	none
2018	West	2,882	none
2017	East	6	none
2017	Total	2,385	none
2017	West	2,379	none
2016	East	8	none
2016	Total	2,380	none
2016	West	2,372	none
2015	East	6	none
2015	Total	2,009	none
2015	West	2,003	none
2014	East	3	none
2014	Total	2,558	none
2014	West	2,555	none
2013	East	3	none
2013	Total	2,646	none
2013	West	2,643	none
2012	East	16	none
2012	Total	2,385	none
2012	West	2,369	none
2011	East	9	none
2011	Total	2,828	none
2011	West	2,819	none
2010	East	10	none
2010	Total	2,093	none
2010	West	2,083	none
2009	East	unknown	none
2009	Total	2,029	none

A row whose area is a total is NAMMCO's own aggregate of that year's areas, not an area to add to them.

Showing 40 of 93 records.

Illegal trade seizures derived

Seizure records whose reported taxon resolves to this species.

What the seizure source records

1 seizure record names 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.

Product	Reported as
bone	Phocoena phocoena

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`
2020	IUCN Red List Assessment (2020)	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`
2003-02-13	Listed in CITES Appendix II	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`