The status and distribution of cetaceans in the Black Sea and Mediterranean Sea

The ACCOBAMS Secretariat and the IUCN Centre for Mediterranean Cooperation took this initiative following the meeting of the ACCOBAMS Contracting Parties in Palma de Majorca in 2004 that specifically requested the development of closer working relations between IUCN and ACCOBAMS in the frame of their Partnership established since 2002. [...] ACCOBAMS convened the meeting of twelve experts from the IUCN Cetacean Specialist Group, along with individual experts from the ACCOBAMS Scientific Committee and RAC/SPA in March 2006, to assess the known status of the 10 species of cetaceans known to be regular in the region and the present report is a result of that work. [...] I am pleased to acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Monaco and the CMS Secretariat, as well as of the Junta of Andalucia and the Ministry for Environment of Spain that support the work of IUCN- Med. [...] An important development in the history of cetacean conservation in the region was the establishment in 2001 of the Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans of the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and Contiguous Atlantic Area (ACCOBAMS) within the framework of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP)/Convention on Migratory Species (CMS) ( ). [...] It was anticipated that, following publication of the workshop report, most or all of the assessments would be submitted formally for review and endorsement by the Cetacean Red List Authority (a subcommittee within the CSG) and then forwarded to the IUCN Red List Programme and the Global Mammal Assessment.