Arafeh-Dalmau N

Cebrian E

Dunga LV

Erlania

Horta P

Layton C

MacAya EC

Mangialajo L

Moore PJ

Mora-Soto A

Nguyen VT

Pocklington JB

Reddy MM

Smit AJ

Spector P

Verdura J

English

Newcastle University E-Prints

used in spatial planning in Malaysia, to create marine pro-tected areas in Bangladesh and Viet Nam, by the UnitedStates Navy to avoid using low-frequency sonar in cetaceanhabitat, to establish International Maritime OrganizationParticularly Sensitive Sea Areas in the Mediterraneanwhere fin and sperm whales are struck by ships, and byshipping companies transiting the Indian Ocean for routeplanning to reduce the risk of hitting whales. In total,the freely available IMMA package of shapefiles has beendownloaded over  times from the IMMA website(marinemammalhabitat.org/imma-eatlas).Yet, despite recent identification, some IMMAs arealready threatened. In the Upper Gulf of CaliforniaIMMA, the Critically Endangered vaquita Phocoena sinushas been reduced to c.  individuals despite numerousefforts to save the species from extinction. In six IMMAscreated along the Ukrainian coast of the Black Sea aroundthe habitat of threatened dolphin and porpoise subspecies,Black Sea harbour porpoises Phocoena phocoena relictaand Black Sea bottlenose Tursiops truncatus ponticusand common dolphins Delphinus delphis ponticus aredying and stranding in what has become a war zone. Inthe Bazaruto Archipelago to Inhambane Bay IMMA, offMozambique, the Critically Endangered East Africansubpopulation of the dugong Dugong dugon, and theEndangered Indian Ocean humpback dolphin Sousaplumbea are threatened by seismic surveys for oil and gasdevelopment.The Marine Mammal Protected Areas Task Force, joinedbyWhale and Dolphin Conservation (UK), is now initiatinga programme to monitor and implement Important MarineMammal Areas.ERICH HOYT (erich.hoyt@imma-network.org),GILL BRAULIK , CATERINA LANFREDI , GIANNA MINTON ,SIMONE PANIGADA , ELENA POLITI , MARGHERITAZANARDELLI and GIUSEPPE NOTARBARTOLO DI SCIARAIUCN Species Survival Commission World Commission onProtected Areas Marine Mammal Protected Areas TaskForceThis is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative CommonsAttribution licence CC BY 4.0.Introducing the Seaweed Specialist Group of theIUCN Species Survival CommissionIn June , the IUCN Species Survival Commission cre-ated the Seaweed Specialist Group. This internationalgroup of scientists and practitioners will work to assessand improve the conservation status of seaweeds, build net-works and partnerships to prioritize conservation actionsand communicate the importance of seaweed species.Seaweeds (macroalgae) are found in all oceans and seas,with . , known marine species that include thered (Rhodophyta, c. , species), brown (Ochrophyta,c. ,) and green (Chlorophyta, c. ,) taxa. However,climate change and other anthropogenic stressors threatenmany seaweeds globally, including iconic habitat-formingspecies such as kelps, fucoids and rhodoliths. The SeaweedSpecialist Group has a global ecosystem and conservationfocus, and we use our combined knowledge to informdecision-making and science-based actions for seaweedconservation. The group is diverse in geographical distri-bution and technical expertise, with members from allcontinents, because addressing the global and local chal-lenges that seaweeds face requires diverse perspectivesand skills.Given the number of seaweed species, the SeaweedSpecialist Group will initially prioritize conservation ass-essment, planning and action for key taxa. For example,there is an urgent need for management and conservationinitiatives for more than  species of Laminarian kelps.Kelps are the dominant habitat-forming species foundEndangered Black Sea bottlenose dolphin Tursiops truncatusponticus in an Important Marine Mammal Area in the war zonein the Black Sea. Photo: Elena Gladilina.Giant kelp forest of Macrocystis pyrifera in Baja California,Mexico, August . Photo: Eduardo Sorensen, Mission Blue/Mas Kelp.Conservation news 147Oryx, 2024, 58(2), 145–154 © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S003060532300193Xhttps://doi.org/10.1017/S003060532300193X Published online by Cambridge University Pressalong over % of the world’s coastlines. They supportthriving ecosystems and local livelihoods and providevarious benefits to people, yet their conservation statusneeds to be better understood. Moreover, recent oceanwarming and marine heatwaves combined with other an-thropogenic stressors (e.g. exploitation, overgrazing andpollution) have resulted in the loss of. % of kelp forestsin regions of Australia, the USA andMexico, with significantimplications for associated biodiversity and local economies.By , the Seaweed Specialist Group aims to assess theconservation status of at least  Laminarian species.The Seaweed Specialist Group invites researchers andpractitioners, especially those in phycology, ecology, cli-mate change and conservation, to reach out with inquiries,offers of collaboration, and contributions that support ourconservation efforts.NUR ARAFEH-DALMAU1,2 (nadalmau@stanford.edu),ERLANIA2,3 , EMMA CEBRIAN2,4 , LOYISO V. DUNGA2,5,PAULO HORTA2,6 , CAYNE LAYTON2,7 , ERASMO C. MACAYA 2,8, LUISA MANGIALAJO2,9 , PIPPA J. MOORE2,10 , ALEJANDRAMORA-SOTO2,11 , MAGGIE M. REDDY2,5 , ALBERTUSJ. SMIT2,12 , PIKE SPECTOR2,13 , VAN TU NGUYEN2,14 ,JANA VERDURA2,9 and JACQUELINE B. POCKLINGTON2,151Hopkins Marine Station, Stanford University, Pacific Grove,USA. 2IUCN Species Survival Commission Seaweed SpecialistGroup. 3National Research and Innovation Agency, Jakarta,Indonesia. 4Centre d’Estudis Avançats de Blanes, Blanes,Spain. 5University of Cape Town, Cape Town, South Africa.6Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Florianopolis,Brazil. 7University of Tasmania, Hobart, Australia.8Universidad de Concepción, Concepción, Chile. 9UniversitéCôte d’Azur, CNRS, ECOSEAS, Nice, France. 10NewcastleUniversity, Newcastle, UK. 11University of Victoria, Victoria,Canada. 12University of Western Cape, Bellville, SouthAfrica. 13California Ocean Protection Council, Sacramento,USA. 14Vietnam Academy of Sciences and Technology,Ho Chi Minh, Viet Nam. 15Deakin University, Queenscliff,AustraliaThis is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative CommonsAttribution licence CC BY 4.0.Workshop for the protection of Chinesegiant salamandersThe Chinese giant salamander Andrias davidianus is thelargest extant amphibian, is categorized as CriticallyEndangered as a result of overexploitation and habitat loss(Tapley et al., , Oryx, , –) and requires conserva-tion attention. Andrias davidianus is actually a species com-plex, and has recently been divided into several species: A.sligoi (Turvey et al., , Ecology and Evolution, , –.), A. jiangxiensis (Chai et al., , Zoological Research,, –) andA. cheni (Gong et al., ,Chinese Journalof Zoology, , –). It is likely there will be further taxo-nomic splits. Although the current conservation needs ofthese species are partially understood (Chen et al., ,Ecology and Evolution, , –), the conservationactions needed to prevent the extinction of the named andas yet unnamed species need to be clarified.With this purpose in mind, the NGO Green Camel Bell,the Zoological Society of London and the Chengdu Instituteof Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, held a workshopon the conservation of Chinese giant salamanders, inLanzhou, China, in October . The attendees, represent-ing a diverse array of stakeholders, agreed on a series of keyactions: research to resolve the taxonomic conundrums,field surveys to identify and protect remaining pure popula-tions, investigations to identify how Chinese giant salaman-der farming could benefit conservation, refinement of theprocess for releasing individuals from farms, work toencourage legislative changes, research to improve ourunderstanding of the species’ behaviour and ecology, andadoption of better practices to protect against pathogenintroduction and transmission.JING MAO1,2 , CHUNBIN LI1, CHENHAOJIA LIU2 , ZHONG ZHAO2,XIANMAO FAN3, JIE WANG4, QINGHUA LUO5, TIAN ZHAO6,WENBO WANG7, FENG OUYANG8, JIYONG WANG9, ZHIGANGQIAO10, ZHIQIANG LIANG11, WUYING LIN12, PEI WANG13, DAJIEGONG14, WEISHI LIU15, FANG YAN16, ANDREWA. CUNNINGHAM17,BENJAMIN TAPLEY17,18 , SAMUEL T. TURVEY17 andAMAËL BORZÉE18 (amaelborzee@gmail.com)1College of Resources and Environment Science, GansuAgricultural University, Lanzhou, China. 2Gansu GreenCamel Bell Environment and Development Center,Lanzhou, China. 3Bikou Town Taihe Giant SalamanderBreeding Base, Wen County, Gansu Province, China.4Chengdu Institute of Biology, Chinese Academy of Sciences,Chengdu, China. 5College of Biological and ChemicalEngineering, Changsha University, Changsha, China.6College of Fisheries, Southwest University, Chongqing,China. 7Department of Life Sciences, Xianyang NormalUniversity, Xianyang, China. 8FAO/GEF wetland pro-gramme, Nanchang, China. 9Guiyang Qianren EcologicalConservation Center, Guiyang, China. 10Henan NormalUniversity, Xinxiang, China. 11Hunan Fisheries ScienceInstitute, Changsha, China. 12iConserve Eco-Technology Co.,Shenzhen, China. 13Jishou University, Jishou, China.14Northwest Normal University, Lanzhou, China.15Northeast Forestry University, Harbin, China. 16School ofLife Science, Yunnan University, Kunming, China.17Zoological Society of London, London, UK. 18IUCN SpeciesSurvival Commission Amphibian Specialist GroupThis is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative CommonsAttribution licence CC BY 4.0.148 Conservation newsOryx, 2024, 58(2), 145–154 © The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of Fauna & Flora International doi:10.1017/S0030605323001928https://doi.org/10.1017/S003060532300193X Published online by Cambridge University Press

Introducing the Seaweed Specialist Group of the IUCN Species Survival Commission

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Introducing the Seaweed Specialist Group of the IUCN Species Survival Commission

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