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Read right now in Norwegian media that the Minke whale has been downlisted from the IUCN Red list.

It is now listed as " least concern"

However don't know if the downlisting only concerns the Norteastern Atlantic Minke whale population or is the Southern Hemisphere minke whales as well downlisted from the IUCN Red list.

Dave on the Esperanza: Antarctic Minke's are rated

Lower risk: Conservation dependent on the Red List.

They're not an endangered species, but they do live in what is supposed to be a whale sanctuary...

More details on the all minke's here

Downlisting of whales by the IUCN:

http://www.highnorth.no/read.asp?which=375

Yes, Highnorth have published it - the IUCN have not officially declared it yet though, so keeping holding your breath in hope!

Dave,

Your last comment here is confusing me. If the IUCN has downlisted some whale species then.... that's FANTASTIC news. We don't want ANY species to appear on these lists. We shouldn't be hoping for anything other than downlistings.

(I don't think the folks at HNA are going to be caught telling lies about this).

Hi David - I was just saying that the official IUCN changes haven't officially released the downlisting yet, so let's not get too excited.

I'm not saying HNA are wrong or making it up, but it seems weird that they've announced it before the ICUN. Plus, the HNA article has a tone of "yay! now we can hunt em!" - which seems to be jumping the gun (harpoon?) somewhat, by declaring open season on something that's just off the threatened list.

I just want to mention this. In the Norwegian version of the HNA statement, it is pointed out that the Norwegian NGOs Bellona, Naturvernforbundet( the Norwegian Society for Nature) and Natur og Ungdom ( Nature and Youth), the two first mentioned NGOs with an agenda similar to Greenpeace and that have as well worked jointly with GP , support sustainable whaling.

You can make what you want out of this....

Hi Ann. This is interesting. I don't work in Greenpeace Nordic, but I know some people that do, so I shall I ask them about this.

What do you make of this? Are you saying that HNA are suggesting that Greenpeace should support whaling?

Dave,

Norway and others are already hunting the minke species which are reported as having been downlisted. So this is more like a "yay! we told you so - even though we have been hunting the minke species for years, they are getting moved off the red list, not up it".

Apparently both the Antarctic minke whale and common minke whale have been downlisted, so Greenpeace is officially headed to the Antarctic to "save" a species which the IUCN cetacean specialist group does not regard as threatened anymore, despite decades of ongoing whaling. Something to think about?

You can make your whole campaign about the fin whale instead though, it still meets the IUCN's "endangered" classification apparently. Of course, the ICR will have possibly finished taking fin whales already by the time you find them, so you may not be able to get any videos of that.

Have a good trip though...

Good points about it being pretty quick to the harpoon to start hunting whales that are just off the list - and these aren't even off the list yet.

According to an IUCN press release forwarded to me:

The status of all whale species on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species remains under scientific review, contrary to reports appearing in several media outlets today.

Some media outlets have erroneously reported that the World Conservation Union (IUCN) has decided to remove several whale species from its Red List of Threatened Species including the minke whale and other species targeted in whale hunting.

As for the other groups, I have heard about Bellona so checked their english site out. There's nothing on there about whaling. They seem focused on nukes, climate change and renewable energy. (All important issues also.)

If they are supporting whaling, and it helps them get their other work done in Norway, I disagree but can live with it.

Andrew,

Thanks for the information. Let's wait and see.