Summary

Observations of Phocoena phocoena were collected from the Baltic Sea area for HELCOM Red List species list.

Description

The HELCOM Red List of Baltic Sea species in danger of becoming extinct (2013) is the first threat assessment for Baltic Sea species that covers all marine mammals, fish, birds, macrophytes (aquatic plants), and benthic invertebrates, and follows the Red List criteria of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

Almost 2800 species were considered in the Red List assessment and about 1750 were evaluated according to the IUCN Red List criteria.

Phocoena phocoena has two subpopulations that have been placed to different Red List categories. Baltic Sea subpopulation is in the category of Critically Endangered (CR) species whereas Western Baltic subpopulation belongs to the category of Vulnerable (VU) species.