The Committee completed its annual review of the SMM list of accepted marine mammal species and subspecies in May 2020. A new species has been added to the list — Sato’s beaked whale, Berardius minimus Yamada, Kitamura and Matsuishi, 2019. This species is found in the North Pacific Ocean. It is smaller and darker in coloration than Baird’s beaked whale, B. bairdii, a closely related species of Berardius that is also found in the North Pacific. In addition to the morphological differences, mitochondrial DNA data also separate Sato’s beaked whale from the other beaked whale species.

The Committee has also recognized the North Pacific population of fin whales as a separate subspecies, Balaenoptera physalus velifera Cope in Scammon, 1869. Fin whales in the North Pacific have historically been included in the broadly distributed Northern Hemisphere subspecies B. p. physalus. A new genetic study examining both mitochondrial and nuclear DNA found that North Pacific fin whales are diagnosably different from those in the North Atlantic and the Southern Hemisphere, and are likely on a separate evolutionary trajectory.  The subspecies name velifera is Latin for sail-bearing and may refer to the large falcate dorsal fin.

The publications describing these new taxa are:

Archer FI, Robert L. Brownell J, Hancock-Hanser B, Morin P, Robertson K, Sherman K, Calambokidis J, R JU, Rosel P, Mizroch S, Panigada S, Taylor B (2019) Subspecies of fin whales (Balaenoptera physalus Linnaeus, 1758): Taxonomic implications of genetics. J Mammal 100:1653–1670

Yamada TK, Kitamura S, Abe S, Tajima Y, Matsuda A, Mead JG, Matsuishi TF (2019) Description of a new species of beaked whale (Berardius) found in the North Pacific. Scientific Reports 9:1-14

The Committee drafted several Presidential Letters (found here). The most recent was sent to President Tsai of Taiwan in regards to conservation efforts for the Taiwanese white dolphin. In March 2020, a Presidential Letter was sent regarding the conservation of dugongs in the Bazaruto Archipelago National Park (in Mozambique) and adjacent waters, the last viable dugong population in East Africa. The letter asks that the protected area be maintained and expanded and makes several suggestions about proposed oil and gas development. There is also a response to Mexican President López Obrador’s government response to an earlier vaquita letter. The letter expresses distress at evidence of another gillnet vaquita fatality together with evidence of increasing levels of gillnetting (in addition to ongoing illegal totoaba gillnetting) following the cessation of compensation to fishermen. The letter concludes with a plea for action (but none was taken). The final letter went to the NOAA Office of Protected Resources regarding the endangered southern resident killer whales. The letter was in response to a request for comments on ways to reduce impacts of vessels and noise and a series of recommendations that urge the agency to be precautionary are made.