All species / Physeter macrocephalus

Physeter macrocephalus

Sperm Whale · Linnaeus, 1758

Red List, global: VU; Vulnerable, 2025
First CITES listing: II; Appendix II, 1979
CITES trade records: 4,482; 1979–2024 · exporter-reported
Unit dimensions: 6; reported separately, never summed
NAMMCO catch entries: none; NAMMCO reports a subset of marine mammals
Seizure records: 31; reported taxon matches

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

In summary derived

Physeter macrocephalus, Sperm Whale, is placed in family Physeteridae, 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 I, dated 1981, a later entry than the 1979 listing. The corpus records 3 dated listing rows in total.

Its latest global Red List assessment is Vulnerable, published 2025. It carries 6 earlier global assessments on the current scale and 1 on a scale that was superseded before the current categories and cannot be compared with them.

The corpus holds 4,482 exporter-reported CITES trade records for it, from 1979 to 2024, reported across 6 unit dimensions. The most frequently recorded term is teeth: 2,421 records across 3 unit dimensions, of which 2,404 are measured in specimens. The corpus holds no NAMMCO catch records for it. 31 seizure records are attributed to it, being those whose reported taxon matches the species.

Composed from 18 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_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: Physeteridae
First CITES listing: 19793 listing rows; later ones are amendments
Global Red List status: VUVulnerable, assessed 2025
Regional status (Europe): VURegional, 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: 4,158 records, 93%
mass in kg: 291 records, 6%
packaging in containers: 28 records, <1%
area in m²: 2 records, <1%
volume in L: 2 records, <1%
length in m: 1 record, <1%

Records per dimension. Not additive across units.

Trade over time

Peak 282 records in 2013. Trade records per year, exporter-reported, every term and unit counted as records, not quantities.

Peak 464 specimens in 1980. Quantity of teeth, the term with most records (2,404), in specimens, exporter-reported. Other terms are in the tables below, each in its own unit.

count measured in specimens

4,158 of 4,482 records carry a quantity in specimens. CITES leaves the unit blank to mean a count of the term.

teeth2,404

carvings1,243

specimens145

bones102

bone carvings68

ivory carvings52

wax42

bone pieces17

Top 8 of 31. 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
teeth	3,465 specimens	1,823	1992–2023	O
carvings	5,071 specimens	702	1985–2021	W
teeth	1,935 specimens	517	1985–2024	W
carvings	985.07 specimens †	363	1991–2023	O
specimens	6,300 specimens	135	1992–2023	W
carvings	139 specimens	118	2001–2013	U
bone carvings	120 specimens	61	1995–2023	O
carvings	3,821 specimens	57	1980–1992	not recorded
bones	86 specimens	55	1995–2023	O
ivory carvings	492 specimens	46	1991–2023	O
bones	1,539 specimens	42	1992–2020	W
wax	8,756 specimens	42	2000–2018	W

Showing the 12 term and source combinations with the most records, of 64.

† 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.

mass measured in kg

291 of 4,482 records carry a quantity in kg.

wax159

oil54

derivatives23

specimens18

teeth16

carvings10

bones5

bone carvings2

Top 8 of 12. 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
wax	865.24 kg	95	1992–2004	W
wax	1,427,253.52 kg	64	1979–1998	not recorded
oil	748,470.25 kg	54	1979–1987	not recorded
derivatives	3,064.34 kg	21	2010–2016	W
specimens	94.15 kg	15	1997–2023	W
teeth	120.94 kg	8	2005–2023	O
carvings	2.14 kg	5	2016–2017	O
teeth	568 kg	4	1981–1990	not recorded
carvings	3.23 kg	4	2010–2015	W
teeth	2.29 kg	4	2010–2023	W
specimens	550.02 kg	3	1980–1989	not recorded
bones	3.65 kg	3	2011–2014	O

Showing the 12 term and source combinations with the most records, of 21.

4 smaller units: containers (28 records), m² (2 records), L (2 records), m (1 record)

packaging measured in containers

28 of 4,482 records carry a quantity in containers.

carvings16

wax9

specimens2

teeth1

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
carvings	19 containers	14	1986–2004	W
wax	1,429 containers	9	1979	not recorded
carvings	2 containers	2	1989–1990	not recorded
specimens	8 containers	2	2006	W
teeth	8 containers	1	1982	not recorded

area measured in m²

2 of 4,482 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

volume measured in L

2 of 4,482 records carry a quantity in L.

Term	Quantity	Records	Years	Source
specimens	0.02 L	2	1999–2022	W

length measured in m

1 of 4,482 records carry a quantity in m.

Term	Quantity	Records	Years	Source
carvings	0.13 m	1	2017	O

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
1981-06-06	I	none	earliest current entry
2000-04-02	I	none	amendment
2004-07-15	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. 7 global assessments are drawn at 6 positions: one position carries more than one assessment of the same category in the same year, and the table below lists them separately. 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
2025	VU	Vulnerable	Global	current for this scope
2023	VU	Vulnerable	Europe	current for this scope
2023	VU	Vulnerable	Europe	a republished version of the 2023 assessment
2019	VU	Vulnerable	Global
2012	EN	Endangered	Global
2008	VU	Vulnerable	Global
2007	VU	Vulnerable	Global
1996	VU	Vulnerable	Global
1996	VU	Vulnerable	Global	a republished version of the 1996 assessment
1994	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.

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

31 seizure records name this species, 3 of them under another name that resolves to it (a published synonym, a gendered variant of the epithet, or a subspecies). 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.

tooth5

bone2

extract2

ivory carvings2

ivory jewellery2

medicine2

specimen2

tusk2

Top 8 of 19. Records per product, not a quantity.

Product	Reported as
bone	Physeter macrocephalus
bone	physeter macrocephalus
bone carving	Physeter macrocephalus
bone piece	Physeter macrocephalus
bone product	physeter macrocephalus
carving	Physeter macrocephalus
cosmetics	Physeter macrocephalus
derivative	Physeter macrocephalus
extract	Physeter macrocephalus
extract	physeter macrocephalus
ivory carvings	Physeter macrocephalus
ivory carvings	physeter macrocephalus
ivory jewellery	Physeter macrocephalus
ivory jewellery	physeter macrocephalus
ivory piece	Physeter macrocephalus
jewellery	Physeter macrocephalus
medicine	Physeter macrocephalus
medicine	physeter macrocephalus
small leather product	Physeter macrocephalus
specimen	physeter macrocephalus
specimen	Physeter macrocephalus
tooth	Physeter macrocephalus
tooth	Physeter macrocephalus
tooth	physeter macrocephalus
tooth	physeter catodon
tooth	Physeter catodon
trimming	physeter macrocephalus
tusk	Physeter macrocephalus
tusk	physeter macrocephalus
unspecified	Physeter macrocephalus
unspecified	Physeter catodon

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
2025	IUCN Red List Assessment (2025)	iucn_assessment	checked against `iucn_assessments`
2024-02-02	CITES Trade Suspension	cites_suspension	curated
2023-05-05	CITES Trade Suspension	cites_suspension	curated
2023	IUCN Red List Assessment (2023)	iucn_assessment	checked against `iucn_assessments`
2022-05-13	CITES Trade Suspension	cites_suspension	curated
2019-07-04	CITES Trade Suspension	cites_suspension	curated
2019	IUCN Red List Assessment (2019)	iucn_assessment	checked against `iucn_assessments`
2018-03-19	CITES Trade Suspension	cites_suspension	curated
2016-03-16	CITES Trade Suspension	cites_suspension	curated
2015-04-09	CITES Trade Suspension	cites_suspension	curated
2012	IUCN Red List Assessment (2012)	iucn_assessment	checked against `iucn_assessments`
2011-01-19	CITES Trade Suspension	cites_suspension	curated
2010-11-29	CITES Trade Suspension	cites_suspension	curated
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
2004-07-15	Listed in CITES Appendix I	cites_listing	checked against `cites_listings`
2002-06-15	CITES Trade: wax	cites_trade	checked against `cites_trade_records`
2001-06-15	CITES Trade: wax	cites_trade	checked against `cites_trade_records`
2000-06-15	CITES Trade: bodies	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`
1981-06-06	Listed in CITES Appendix I	cites_listing	checked against `cites_listings`

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.