Important Marine Mammal Areas - IMMAs

24/03/2026

Our Important Marine Mammal Area (IMMA) comic, Making Space, is now published in Portuguese and being used in communities along the coast of Brazil where IMMAs are found! Follow the story below for links to download the Portuguese as well as the English edition.

We join the Instituto Baleia Jubarte (Humpback Whale Institute) to announce today the publication of Espaços Vivos, the Portuguese translation of MAKING SPACE: The story of Important Marine Mammal Areas (IMMAs) and how they help to protect whale habitats. Printed copies of Espaços Vivos, translate...

06/11/2025

Overjoyed to hear that the High Seas Treaty won the 2025 Earthshot Prize last night! This landmark legal framework to protect biodiversity in 60% of the ocean goes into force in Jan 2026 after 15 years work led by the High Seas Alliance to get countries and civil societies on board. Wonderful to see Rebecca Hubbard receiving the prize as Director of the Alliance. I was so pleased to be involved in the initial meetings of the Alliance in 2011 in Washington, DC, when Whale and Dolphin Conservation and IUCN became two of the launch partners. So many people from so many organisations and countries and have worked to put the High Seas on the global agenda. We go forward!

21/09/2025

I remember our discussions at the birth of the High Seas Alliance in March 2011 in Washington, D.C. Those were grand dreams! Now, 14 ½ years later, we have reached an important turning point. We are now 4 months away from the UN-negotiated, legally binding High Seas agreement from entering into force. Of course, this is just the beginning, like the day the UN Law of the Sea was enacted, but it will be the day that, finally, in the history of the Earth, there will be some mechanism for managing the entire ocean, protecting the biodiversity that is important for the future of humans and all other species and our shared ocean ecosystem.

🎉 Historic day for the ocean!

With ratifications from Sri Lanka, Saint Vincent & the Grenadines, Sierra Leone & Morocco, the High Seas Treaty has hit 60 ratifications, triggering its entry into force. 🌊💙

Read our press release: https://highseasalliance.org/2025/06/09/huge-wave-of-ratifications-for-high-seas-treaty-marks-historic-progress-towards-entry-into-force/

21/09/2025

For the past few months, Rozi Hathaway and I have been making this 40-page true-story comic about the adventures of a humpback whale named Frozen and the creation of IMMAs in the global ocean. Rozi's inspired images swim from panel to panel as the story, written in tight, deceptively simple comic-ease, unfolds. It is being printed as I write. We can't wait to share it with the Task Force and wider IMMA communities.

14/09/2025

Our article in Marine Mammal Science, published this week, reports that a single humpback whale population can abruptly change its feeding habits. It is well known that humpback whales have the most diverse diet of all the rorquals and possibly all baleen whales. In the case of our study population in Senyavin Strait in northern Bering Sea, the whales switched from one year to the next from fish such as polar cod to krill. Their ability to use different prey depending on local availability makes them a promising indicator species for ecosystem dynamics. Their high degree of behavioral plasticity may be one of the keys to the evolutionary success of this species.

Titova, O.V., Fedutin, I.D., Tiunov, A.V., Tsurikov, S.M., Burdin, A.M., Hoyt, E., Filatova, O.A. 2025. Changing the Menu: Humpback Whale (Megaptera novaeangliae) Diet Switching in Senyavin Strait, Chukotka. Marine Mammal Science,

Humpback whales have the most diverse diet of all rorquals. Their ability to use different prey depending on local availability makes them a promising indicator species for ecosystem dynamics. During...

14/08/2025

The IMMA tool would not exist without the IUCN Cetacean Specialist Group.

June 2025 Update on Important Marine Mammal Areas Share 0 The Important Marine Mammal Area (IMMA) Initiative, the main activity of the Marine Mammal Protected Areas Task Force (MMPATF), has been underway since 2016 when the first expert workshop was convened to identify IMMAs in the Mediterranean Se...

09/07/2025

For all the communities around IMMAs helping with the science of studying whales — photo-ID, sightings and so on., here's a chance to publicise your activities and put them on a global map, potentially to share with others.

05/06/2025

We are pleased to present our poster from the One Ocean Science Congress (Nice, France, 4-6 June 2025).
Using a rigorous data-based, peer-review process since 2016, we have guided 320+ scientists in the identification of 323 Important Marine Mammal Areas, or IMMAs. These IMMAs now include 100 of the 135 species of whales, dolphins and other marine mammals.
Check out the IMMA e-Atlas and download shapefiles: https://www.marinemammalhabitat.org/imma-eatlas/

03/06/2025

Bringing whale superhighways to life: WWF and a global coalition of leading scientists, civil society, governments, and tech innovators have launched BlueCorridors.org—a new digital platform combining three decades of whale tracking data with information on overlapping marine threats and conservation solutions. With this new tool, the migratory “blue corridors” used by great whales are now easily accessible to inform science, policy, and ocean protection efforts worldwide. The platform visualizes data from over 50 global research groups. Our IUCN Marine Mammal Protected Areas Task Force has partnered on the project to help inform future protected area planning, utilising our Important Marine Mammal Areas, the IMMAs.

Launched ahead of the UN Ocean Conference in Nice, France (9-13 June), the platform advances the goals to protect 30% of the ocean by 2030, as set out in the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework, underscoring the importance of ratifying the UN High Seas Treaty (BBNJ Agreement).

Key features of the platform include:
—Whale movement maps by species and time of year that can be produced and shared;
—Conservation data to inform future marine protected areas design and planning;
—Overlapping threats, including shipping routes, fishing effort, and climate change layers;
—Case studies, highlighting hotspots where whales are most vulnerable and which solutions governments can action.

“This is the future of conservation—open, collaborative, and grounded in science,” said Dr. Ryan Reisinger, co-lead of the initiative from the University of Southampton. “By linking threats with solutions, this platform supports smarter, more coordinated marine planning that spans sectors and borders.”

Photo: Darren Jew. Video: Pro Studio-Shutterstock-WWF. Courtesy: Christopher Johnson.

29/05/2025

The Bohol Sea IMMA, in the Philippines, the high diversity highway for 19 marine mammal species including blue whales, has helped provide the basis for a Memorandum of Agreement for the collaborative Marine Mammals of the Bohol Sea Project. The Bohol provincial government has partnered with Balyena.org represented by Task Force member Jo Marie Acebes, who has worked hard to put the Bohol Sea on the map both locally and internationally through the IMMA recognition.
https://pia.gov.ph/bohol-mobilizes-communities-to-protect-its-marine-super-highway/

Philippine Information Agency (PIA)

19/03/2025

Just released: GOBI Spring Newsletter with polar bear from Southern Labrador Pack Ice Whelping Area IMMA (Important Marine Mammal Area) on the cover. Inside story on IMMAs and much more. Available at gobi.org/gobi-newsletters/