24 October 2011 - For 86 per cent of all toothed whale species, entanglement in gillnets, traps, weirs, purse seines, longlines and trawls is resulting in an unsustainably high death toll. This is among the findings of a report published today by the Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals under the UN Environment Programme (UNEP/CMS).

The report is an encyclopaedia on the 72 species of toothed whales compiled by Professor Boris Culik of Kiel University in Germany and represents the most recent scientific findings on the distribution, migration, behaviour and threats to this suborder of the cetaceans, which includes sperm whales, beaked whales, porpoises and dolphins.

The UNEP/ASCOBANS Secretariat will present a free copy of the publication to each participant in the upcoming 19th Meeting of the Advisory Committee. The web version of the report can be accessed here.

Click here to read the UNEP press release.