I would like to reply to my colleague Gianni Pavan concerning his query (below). I am doing it through MARMAM (although I have also written to him, wondering why did he not ask me directly), because I hope with this to dispel potential misunderstandings that his question might create within the wider community. First, the Red List assessment of the Mediterranean sperm whale sub-population is online http://www.iucnredlist.org/details/16370739/0 for everyone to read and ponder about. The assessment was authored by A. Frantzis, G. Bearzi, R. Reeves, and me as the first author, with contributions from Ana Tejedor, C. Agusti, S. Airoldi, S. Panigada, R. de Stephanis, and D. Engelhaupt. In particular concerning the estimated size of such sub-population, nowhere in the assessment it is stated that it is of 2,500 animals. Rather, the argument was that, on the basis of a number of elements mentioned and quoted in the assessment (e.g., in Section "Population size"), we suggested that the sub-population contained fewer than 2,500 mature individuals, the limit under which a sub-population can be included in the Red List as Endangered under the A criterion. Regards, Giuseppe Notarbartolo di Sciara disciara@tethys.org Il giorno 16/giu/2013, alle ore 21:00, marmam-request@lists.uvic.ca ha scritto:

Date: Wed, 29 May 2013 11:02:14 +0200 From: Gianni Pavan <gianni.pavan@unipv.it> To: MARMAM@lists.uvic.ca Subject: [MARMAM] IUCN status for the sperm whale Message-ID: <CAC0_uZ0YvhuzpKq_rG=TzUvVO98CWs+GRpr=SQOrWnqOp6yg0w@mail.gmail.com> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1"

Hi all, recently IUCN set the status of Mediterranean sperm whales as "Endangered" and not anymore "data deficient". The given (sub)population estimate is 2500 animals.

To better address our research based on the acoustic detections with underwater platforms I'm willing to know on which studies this estimate has been made. Any information will be appreciated.

Gianni Pavan

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