Conservation news 147


IUCN Species Survival CommissionWorld Commission on Protected Areas Marine Mammal Protected Areas Task Force


This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence CC BY 4.0.


Introducing the Seaweed Specialist Group of the IUCN Species Survival Commission


Endangered Black Sea bottlenose dolphin Tursiops truncatus ponticus in an Important Marine Mammal Area in the war zone in the Black Sea. Photo: Elena Gladilina.


used in spatial planning in Malaysia, to create marine pro- tected areas in Bangladesh and Viet Nam, by the United States Navy to avoid using low-frequency sonar in cetacean habitat, to establish International Maritime Organization Particularly Sensitive Sea Areas in the Mediterranean where fin and sperm whales are struck by ships, and by shipping companies transiting the Indian Ocean for route planning to reduce the risk of hitting whales. In total, the freely available IMMA package of shapefiles has been downloaded over 725 times from the IMMA website (marinemammalhabitat.org/imma-eatlas). Yet, despite recent identification, some IMMAs are


already threatened. In the Upper Gulf of California IMMA, the Critically Endangered vaquita Phocoena sinus has been reduced to c. 10 individuals despite numerous efforts to save the species from extinction. In six IMMAs created along the Ukrainian coast of the Black Sea around the habitat of threatened dolphin and porpoise subspecies, Black Sea harbour porpoises Phocoena phocoena relicta and Black Sea bottlenose Tursiops truncatus ponticus and common dolphins Delphinus delphis ponticus are dying and stranding in what has become a war zone. In the Bazaruto Archipelago to Inhambane Bay IMMA, off Mozambique, the Critically Endangered East African subpopulation of the dugong Dugong dugon, and the Endangered Indian Ocean humpback dolphin Sousa plumbea are threatened by seismic surveys for oil and gas development. The MarineMammal Protected Areas Task Force, joined


by Whale and Dolphin Conservation (UK), is now initiating a programme to monitor and implement Important Marine Mammal Areas.


ERICH HOYT (erich.hoyt@imma-network.org), GILL BRAULIK ,CATERINA LANFREDI ,GIANNA MINTON , SIMONE PANIGADA ,ELENA POLITI ,MARGHERITA ZANARDELLI and GIUSEPPE NOTARBARTOLO DI SCIARA


Giant kelp forest of Macrocystis pyrifera in Baja California, Mexico, August 2023. Photo: Eduardo Sorensen, Mission Blue/ Mas Kelp.


Oryx, 2024, 58(2), 145–154 © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S003060532300193X


In June 2023, the IUCN Species Survival Commission cre- ated the Seaweed Specialist Group. This international group of scientists and practitioners will work to assess and improve the conservation status of seaweeds, build net- works and partnerships to prioritize conservation actions and communicate the importance of seaweed species. Seaweeds (macroalgae) are found in all oceans and seas,


with .10,000 known marine species that include the red (Rhodophyta, c. 6,200 species), brown (Ochrophyta, c. 1,800) and green (Chlorophyta, c. 1,800) taxa. However, climate change and other anthropogenic stressors threaten many seaweeds globally, including iconic habitat-forming species such as kelps, fucoids and rhodoliths. The Seaweed Specialist Group has a global ecosystem and conservation focus, and we use our combined knowledge to inform decision-making and science-based actions for seaweed conservation. The group is diverse in geographical distri- bution and technical expertise, with members from all continents, because addressing the global and local chal- lenges that seaweeds face requires diverse perspectives and skills. Given the number of seaweed species, the Seaweed


Specialist Group will initially prioritize conservation ass- essment, planning and action for key taxa. For example, there is an urgent need for management and conservation initiatives for more than 120 species of Laminarian kelps. Kelps are the dominant habitat-forming species found


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