Cetacean research organisations worldwide: status, mandate, strandings, teams and budgets

Who studies cetaceans, with what standing and with what means? This page lists 76 research organisations in some forty countries, from the university laboratory to the national institute, by way of scientific associations and the secretariats of international agreements. For each one: its legal status, the mandate that a public authority does or does not confer on it, its role in stranding networks, the size of its team, its budget where that is public, its speciality and its area of operation.

The reference model, for a French-speaking reader, is the Observatoire Pelagis in La Rochelle, a unit of the CNRS and the university, which runs the Réseau national échouages, the French national stranding network, under delegation from the ministry responsible for the Environment. Many countries have an equivalent, some have none at all, and several organisations thought to be in charge of strandings in fact hold no more than the database.

Official or not: two questions, not one

Asking whether an organisation is “official” covers two distinct things, and conflating them loses what matters. Legal status says what the structure is. The mandate says whether a public authority entrusts it with a mission on cetaceans. The two do not go together.

MIRACETI is a non-profit association under the French law of 1901, and yet it coordinates strandings along the whole French Mediterranean seaboard, under agreement with Port-Cros National Park. The Sea Mammal Research Unit at St Andrews is a public body funded by the British research council, and it holds no mandate on strandings, which fall to a consortium led by the Zoological Society of London. The first is a non-profit and mandated, the second public and without a mandate.

Status	Number	Mandate	Number
Public	34	Mandated by a public authority	34
Non-profit	32	Accredited, authorised or licensed	14
Mixed	4	No known public mandate	12
Intergovernmental	4	Not established	16
Not established	2

Strandings are not a matter for the state

This is the clearest finding this inventory allows, and it runs against intuition. Of the 24 organisations that coordinate a stranding network, 11 are associations and only 10 are public bodies, the remaining 3 being mixed structures. Collecting carcasses along thousands of kilometres of coast calls for a mesh of volunteers that a state department is not equipped to produce, and many countries have entrusted the task to an association rather than create one.

Entrusted, not abandoned: 15 of these 24 coordinators hold their role under a formal public mandate, and 4 under an accreditation. That is the case in France on both seaboards, Pelagis for the Atlantic and the English Channel, MIRACETI for the Mediterranean, one public and the other a non-profit, both mandated.

How to read the strandings column

It distinguishes six situations, where a yes or a no is often made to do. The nuance matters: the researchers had at first placed 36 organisations under “coordinates”, and the checking stage reclassified eleven of them after opening their sources.

Coordinates	runs a national or regional network, trains and authorises its correspondents. 24 organisations
Holds the database	holds the national database without running the field network. 4 organisations
Participates	correspondent or contributor to a network run by another body. 35 organisations
International support	funds, harmonises or sends experts, without a network of its own. 2 organisations
No	no activity on strandings. 6 organisations
Not established	role not documented in the sources consulted. 5 organisations

Why the budget column is almost empty

Of 76 organisations, 13 publish a budget and 26 a headcount related to their work on cetaceans. This is not a shortcoming of this page, it is the state of the available information.

There are three reasons for this. University laboratories do not publish a separate budget for their cetacean team, which is absorbed into that of the university or of the joint research unit. French and European associations file their accounts without always putting them online. And English-speaking organisations under private law do publish full financial statements, which creates a visibility bias: the few known budgets are mostly American, which does not mean that these organisations are the best resourced.

We have set aside three temptations. Adding together headcounts of different kinds: the volunteers of a network are not employees, and an association with 1,500 volunteers is not a team of 1,500 people. Attributing to a unit the budget of its parent body: the marine mammal centre at Woods Hole does not have Woods Hole’s 215 million dollars, and the research centre of the New England Aquarium does not have the aquarium’s 54 million. And taking up a figure read in a search engine snippet without being able to open the document: three budgets were removed at the checking stage on that ground.

Where a cell is empty, it means that the figure was not found in a citable public source, not that it is zero.

The organisations, by region

Intergovernmental organisations

Organisation	Country	Status and mandate	Strandings	Team	Budget
Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans of the Baltic, North East Atlantic, Irish and North Seas (ASCOBANS), 1994 An agreement covering only odontocetes other than the sperm whale, with the harbour porpoise as its central species; it serves as the policy forum for the SCANS abundance surveys and for species action plans (Baltic harbour porpoise, dolphin… Scope: Baltic, North Sea, Irish Sea and North East Atlantic; 10 Parties (Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Lithuania, the Netherlands…	Germany	Intergov., mandated Regional agreement under the Convention on Migratory Species, administered by UNEP.	Participates	4 four posts entered in the 2025-2028 budget, that is 1.45 full-time equivalents…	EUR 259,176 in 2025 and EUR 1,044,867 over the whole of 2025-2028, costs… 2025
International Council for the Exploration of the Sea (CIEM / ICES), 1902 The world’s oldest intergovernmental marine science organisation; it turns the data of national institutes into regulatory advice with legal standing, which makes it the compulsory point of passage for catch figures… Scope: North Atlantic and adjacent seas; 19 member countries	Denmark	Intergov., mandated Issues the formal scientific advice to the European Commission and to ASCOBANS.	Participates	·	·
Agreement on the Conservation of Cetaceans of the Black Sea, Mediterranean Sea and Contiguous Atlantic Area (ACCOBAMS), 1996 The only agreement to cover the Mediterranean and the Black Sea as a single block; it funded the ACCOBAMS Survey Initiative, the first synoptic survey of cetacean abundance at basin scale. Scope: Black Sea, Mediterranean and the contiguous Atlantic area west of the Strait of Gibraltar, including the 2010 extension; 24 Parties	Monaco	Intergov., mandated Regional agreement under the Convention on Migratory Species; headquarters agreement with Monaco.	International support	5 members of the permanent secretariat named on the Secretariat page: executive…	EUR 950,000 for the 2026-2028 triennium, including EUR 56,000 of carry-overs from the… 2026
International Whaling Commission (CBI / IWC), 1946 The only global intergovernmental organisation devoted to cetaceans; its scientific committee, which meets every year, produces the abundance and status assessments that serve as the reference, and its working groups cover… Scope: Global	United Kingdom	Intergov., mandated International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling, Washington, 1946.	International support	·	·

France and its overseas territories

Organisation	Country	Status and mandate	Strandings	Team	Budget
Groupe d’étude des cétacés du Cotentin et des mammifères marins de la mer de la Manche (GECC), 1997 Photo-identification monitoring of the common bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) population of the English Channel, study of their chemical contamination, running of the Normandie Mer’Veille regional observer network and… Scope: The English Channel: survey area from northern Brittany to Normandy, including part of the Channel Island waters.	France	Non-profit, mandated Contract with the Office français de la biodiversité for bottlenose dolphin monitoring.	Participates	5 Employees: 4 permanent contracts, one of them part-time, and 1 contract on a…	·
Groupe de recherche sur les cétacés (GREC), 1991 Field cetology on light means, chiefly under sail: photo-identification of the sperm whale, visual and acoustic surveys, work on beaked whales and on the effects of noise pollution. First data on… Scope: North-western Mediterranean (including the waters off the Côte d’Azur and Corsica), Bay of Biscay, Martinique, the Azores and French Polynesia, with campaigns…	France	Non-profit, accredited Correspondent of the Réseau national échouages in the Mediterranean, coordination provided by MIRACETI.	Participates	30 volunteers	·
MIRACETI, connaissance et conservation des cétacés, 2020 Reducing interactions between human activities and cetaceans in the Mediterranean: ship strike risk, a high-quality whale-watching label, knowledge of common bottlenose and Risso’s dolphin populations, and… Scope: The French Mediterranean seaboard: Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, Occitanie and Corsica, within the Pelagos Sanctuary and in connection with the agreement…	France	Non-profit, mandated Agreement with Port-Cros National Park, designated for the monitoring of Mediterranean strandings.	Coordinates	11 Salaried staff	·
Observatoire Pelagis (PELAGIS, UAR 3462), 2011 National observatory of marine mammal and seabird populations: stranding monitoring, abundance estimation surveys, a biological sample bank, analysis of causes of mortality and scientific support to… Scope: The whole French coastline, the English Channel, Atlantic and Mediterranean seaboards (about 5,000 km) and the overseas collectivities, plus the campaigns…	France	Public, mandated Ministry responsible for the Environment: running of the Réseau national échouages under delegation.	Coordinates	·	about EUR 850,000 of total budget, of which EUR 614,000 of own budget 2015
Office français de la biodiversité (OFB), 2020 Public biodiversity operator: co-funder of national stranding monitoring, manager of the Agoa Sanctuary with a 2023-2037 management plan that includes a strand on structuring the acquisition of knowledge about… Scope: The whole of France, mainland and overseas. For cetaceans: management of the Agoa Sanctuary, a marine protected area of 143,256 km² covering the zone…	France	Public, mandated Manager of the Agoa Sanctuary; co-funds the Réseau national échouages, which it does not coordinate.	Participates	·	·
Groupe local d’observation et d’identification des cétacés (GLOBICE), 2001 Study of the cetaceans of Réunion by photo-identification, passive acoustics and abundance estimation: humpback whales, Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins, spinner dolphins, together with assessment of shipping traffic and of… Scope: The waters of Réunion, extending to the south-western Indian Ocean through the IndoCet consortium and the regional coordination of important areas…	France (Réunion)	Non-profit, accredited Environmental protection accreditation since 2006; coordination of the stranding network written into its…	Coordinates	7 Permanent salaried staff at the end of 2023, according to the 2023 activity report (the “Notre…	·
Association Opération Cétacés, 1996 Monitoring of the humpback whale population wintering in New Caledonia since the 1990s (photo-identification, biopsies, tags, song), coastal dolphins and dugongs, with scientific output published through the IRD. Scope: New Caledonia’s EEZ: the southern and western lagoons, the Chesterfield Islands, and the South Pacific basin for migrations	France (New Caledonia)	Non-profit, accredited Contributing body to the Réseau national échouages under code 988 (Pelagis report, 2021).	Coordinates	10 members of the association, a figure given as about ten in the profile published…	·
Association Mata Tohora Handling of cetacean emergencies (114 reports dealt with in 2025), monitoring of disturbance and of whale-watching, ecology of the spinner dolphins of Moorea, the Odyssey for Life expedition on humpback whale migration. Scope: The five archipelagos of French Polynesia (Society, Tuamotu, Marquesas, Austral, Gambier)	France (French Polynesia)	Non-profit, mandated Local stranding network directed by the DIREN of French Polynesia, run by the association since 2017.	Coordinates	7 field scientists and veterinarians listed on the Team page (two holders of doctorates in…	·

British Isles, North Sea and Baltic

Organisation	Country	Status and mandate	Strandings	Team	Budget
Institut für Terrestrische und Aquatische Wildtierforschung, Büsum site (ITAW), 2011 Reference veterinary laboratory for the health of North Sea harbour porpoises and seals, combining necropsy, bioacoustics and assessment of the effects of underwater noise and of human activities. Scope: The German coasts of the North Sea and the Baltic, mainly Schleswig-Holstein and the Wadden Sea	Germany	Public, mandated Totfundmonitoring carried out for the Land of Schleswig-Holstein, funded by its environment ministry.	Coordinates one Land	·	·
Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, Operational Directorate Natural Environment (IRSNB / KBIN) The pairing of IRSNB for coordination and the University of Liège for pathology makes up one of the best documented networks in Europe relative to the length of coast, with an unbroken series of annual reports over thirty years. Scope: The 67 km of Belgian coast and the Belgian part of the North Sea, with aerial monitoring and cooperation with neighbouring countries	Belgium	Public, mandated Competent authority designated by Belgian marine mammal protection legislation.	Coordinates	·	·
Irish Whale and Dolphin Group (IWDG), 1990 An association born of campaigning commitment that became the public operator of the Irish inventory, bringing together a sightings scheme, a strandings scheme, photo-identification and a research vessel, the Celtic Mist. Scope: The whole island of Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland, plus Irish waters (in 1991 the group obtained the designation of the waters…	Ireland	Non-profit, mandated Commissioned and funded by the Irish National Parks and Wildlife Service.	Coordinates	·	·
Hafrannsóknastofnun, Marine and Freshwater Research Institute (MFRI), 2016 Producer of the Icelandic scientific advice on large cetaceans, including the abundance estimates used in NAMMCO and IWC discussions, and holder of the humpback whale photo-identification catalogue… Scope: The Icelandic exclusive economic zone and inland waters, ten sites around the country, two research vessels	Iceland	Public, mandated Public institute producing the Icelandic scientific advice on large cetaceans.	Not established	·	ISK 4,824.1 million of revenue against ISK 4,826.1 million of expenditure 2023
Havforskningsinstituttet, Institute of Marine Research (HI (IMR)) One of the largest marine research institutes in Europe, whose “sjøpattedyr” group supplies the stock assessments of cetaceans and seals that underpin the Norwegian scientific advice, in particular to the scientific committee… Scope: The Norwegian coasts and exclusive economic zone, the Barents Sea, the Norwegian Sea, Svalbard and Jan Mayen, plus campaigns in the Arctic and in…	Norway	Public, mandated Has held the Norwegian national register of stranded marine mammals since 2024.	Holds the database	·	NOK 1,894,754,991 of operating revenue (that is NOK 1,895 million of… 2024
Strandingsonderzoek, faculty of veterinary medicine, Utrecht University The Dutch centre for cetacean pathology, at the origin of the series of studies on causes of harbour porpoise mortality in the southern North Sea, including predation by the grey seal and bycatch. Scope: The Dutch coast, southern North Sea	Netherlands	Public, mandated Body designated and funded by the Dutch ministry LNV for the pathology of strandings.	Participates	·	·
Stacja Morska im. Profesora Krzysztofa Skóry, Hel marine station (SMIOUG), 1992 The only Polish site to combine research, a seal facility (Fokarium) and a grey seal rehabilitation centre, at the origin of the return of the grey seal to the southern Baltic and a mainstay of the ASCOBANS Jastarnia plan for the… Scope: The Polish Baltic coast, Puck Bay and the Gulf of Gdańsk, coastal waters and the Polish offshore zone	Poland	Public, mandate not established	Holds the database	·	·
Sea Mammal Research Unit (SMRU), 1978 Born in 1978 of the merger of the Seals Research Division and the Whale Research Unit, based at St Andrews since 1996, it is the British reference laboratory on pinnipeds and on the remote tracking of marine mammals… Scope: Global for research (biology, ecology, physiology and behaviour of marine mammals); statutory mandate to advise the government…	United Kingdom	Public, no mandate	No	40 “over 40 staff and students”: the published figure mixes permanent staff…	·
UK Cetacean Strandings Investigation Programme, run by the Institute of Zoology of the Zoological Society of London (CSIP), 1990 One of the world’s longest series on causes of cetacean mortality, fed by standardised necropsy since 1990, and contributed to British wildlife health surveillance (Great Britain Wildlife Health… Scope: The coasts of England and Wales for collection and necropsies; consolidation of data at United Kingdom scale with partners…	United Kingdom	Mixed, mandated Contract with Defra and the devolved administrations, managed by the Joint Nature Conservation Committee.	Coordinates	·	·
Scottish Marine Animal Stranding Scheme, SRUC Veterinary Services, Inverness (SMASS), 1992 The only stranding scheme in the United Kingdom to have covered seals as well as cetaceans from the outset, and the main supplier of data on mass strandings of pilot whales and beaked whales in the north-east Atlantic. Scope: The whole Scottish coastline, including the Hebrides, Orkney and Shetland	United Kingdom (Scotland)	Public, mandated Commissioned and funded by the Marine Directorate of the Scottish Government.	Coordinates	·	·

Mediterranean and Iberian Atlantic

Organisation	Country	Status and mandate	Strandings	Team	Budget
Plavi svijet Institut za istraživanje i zaštitu mora (Blue World Institute of Marine Research and Conservation) (BWI), 1999 Has run the Adriatic Dolphin Project since 1987, the longest continuous monitoring of a common bottlenose dolphin community in the Mediterranean; a catalogue of more than 2,250 individuals. Its work led in 2006 to the creation of the first… Scope: The Adriatic Sea, Croatian side: the Lošinj-Cres archipelago, with field bases on Vis and Murter.	Croatia	Non-profit, mandate not established	Participates	14 14 employees as at 31 December 2022, in the 2023 financial report	EUR 476,656.49 of revenue and EUR 470,429.80 of expenses (financial year… 2023
Conservación, Información y Estudio sobre Cetáceos (CIRCE), 1996 Long-term photo-identification monitoring of the killer whales, pilot whales, sperm whales and common bottlenose dolphins of the Strait of Gibraltar, and work on ship strike risk from shipping traffic. Scope: The Strait of Gibraltar, the Gulf of Cádiz, Spanish Atlantic and Mediterranean waters; declared projects in more than ten countries.	Spain	Non-profit, no mandate	No	8 people presented as the team on the site’s “Quiénes somos” page, without…	·
Instituto Universitario de Sanidad Animal y Seguridad Alimentaria, Universidad de Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Centro Atlántico de Investigación de Cetáceos (IUSA-ULPGC), 2002 Diagnosis of causes of cetacean mortality: morbillivirus, embolic syndrome associated with military sonar, interactions with fishing gear, ship strikes. Scope: The Canary Islands; the centre is an international reference in cetacean pathology.	Spain (Canary Islands)	Public, mandated Agreement with the Canary Islands government since 1997 for the network’s necropsies.	Participates	·	·
Sociedad para el Estudio de los Cetáceos en el Archipiélago Canario (SECAC), 1993 Holds and maintains the Colección Biológica de Referencia de Cetáceos de la Macaronesia, the largest biological cetacean collection in Spain. Scope: The Canary Islands, in particular the eastern islands; the reference collection covers Macaronesia.	Spain (Canary Islands)	Non-profit, mandated Stranding work commissioned by the Canary Islands government, monitoring project 2025-2028.	Participates	·	·
Ινστιτούτο Κητολογικών Ερευνών Πέλαγος (Pelagos Cetacean Research Institute) Established the link between military sonar and mass strandings of Cuvier’s beaked whales, the year-round presence of sperm whales in Greece, the isolated harbour porpoise population of the northern Aegean and the association of three dolphin species in the… Scope: The Greek seas (Ionian Sea, Gulf of Corinth, Aegean Sea, Myrtoan Sea) and, by extension, the eastern Mediterranean.	Greece	Non-profit, mandate not established	Coordinates	·	·
Centro Interdisciplinare di Bioacustica e Ricerche Ambientali, Università degli Studi di Pavia (CIBRA), 1988 Marine bioacoustics: a digital sound library of Mediterranean cetaceans, protocols for mitigating anthropogenic noise, passive acoustic monitoring. Scope: The whole Italian coast for the database; bioacoustic research in the Mediterranean and beyond.	Italy	Public, mandated Mandate from the Italian environment ministry, agreement DPN/2008/28401, national stranding database.	Holds the database	·	·
Dipartimento di Biomedicina Comparata e Alimentazione, Università degli Studi di Padova, Banca per i Tessuti dei Mammiferi Marini del Mediterraneo and CERT (BCA-UNIPD) Comparative anatomy, pathology and neurobiology of cetaceans; conservation and provision of tissues taken from stranded animals, for genetics, toxicology and histopathology. Scope: The Italian Mediterranean coasts for collection; the tissue bank declares itself at the scale of the Mediterranean and adjacent waters.	Italy	Public, mandated Tissue bank and CERT team instituted by the Italian environment ministry.	Participates	·	·
Istituto Tethys ETS (Tethys Research Institute), 1986 Holds one of the largest datasets on Mediterranean cetaceans, built up since 1986 by Cetacean Sanctuary Research and the Ionian Dolphin Project; work on ship strike risk for rorquals and for the… Scope: The Mediterranean Sea, mainly the Pelagos Sanctuary (Ligurian Sea) and the Ionian Sea (Gulf of Ambracia, Greece); some work outside the Mediterranean.	Italy	Non-profit, no mandate	No	30 “a network of about 30 collaborators” according to the presentation page of…	·
OKEANOS, Instituto de Investigação em Ciências do Mar, Universidade dos Açores The Azores Whale Lab, hosted by the institute, introduced bio-logging and biotelemetry tags to Portugal for the study of cetaceans; work on the diet of rorquals and sperm whales by DNA… Scope: The Azores and the open North Atlantic: seamounts, the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, the pelagic and mesopelagic domains; the exclusive economic zone…	Portugal (Azores)	Public, mandate not established	Not established	·	·
Museu da Baleia da Madeira (MBM), 1990 The only body in the archipelago to carry out necropsies and to hold the reference biological collections; cetacean research programmes launched in 2000, attached to a museum devoted to the history of whaling… Scope: The Madeira archipelago, Porto Santo and the Desertas Islands; Macaronesian waters.	Portugal (Madeira)	Public, mandated Has coordinated RACAM since 1996, a network on which the regional directorates sit.	Coordinates	·	·

North America

Organisation	Country	Status and mandate	Strandings	Team	Budget
Groupe de recherche et d’éducation sur les mammifères marins (GREMM), 1985 Has run the photo-identification monitoring of the St Lawrence beluga, an endangered population, since 1985, along with the Projet Grands Rorquals; publishes the science outlet Baleines en direct and operates the interpretation centre for… Scope: The St Lawrence estuary and gulf, Quebec	Canada	Non-profit, mandate not established	Coordinates	23 People listed on GREMM’s Team page in September 2026: 11 in research…	·
Marine Animal Response Society (MARS), 1999 Backs its response work with systematic scientific collection, carcass samples analysed with veterinarians and researchers; led the response to the mass mortalities of North Atlantic right whales in the eastern… Scope: Canada’s Maritime provinces: Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island	Canada	Non-profit, accredited Operates under the aegis of the Fisheries and Oceans Canada response programme.	Coordinates	7 Permanent team members whose profile appears on the “Meet the Team” page in…	·
Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Marine Mammal Response Program (MPO / DFO) The Canadian equivalent of the American federal level: it is at once the permitting authority, the funder of the regional networks and a scientific operator through its Science sector, but publishes neither headcount nor budget specific to this… Scope: Canadian waters of the three oceans: Atlantic, Arctic, Pacific, plus the inland waters of the St Lawrence	Canada	Public, mandated Federal department responsible for marine mammals in distress; authorises the regional networks.	Coordinates	·	·
Alaska SeaLife Center (ASLC), 1998 Born of the wreck of the Exxon Valdez and funded in part from the oil spill settlement, it combines a public aquarium, a research programme and Alaska’s only permanent marine wildlife rehabilitation centre. Scope: Alaska and the Bering, Chukchi and Gulf of Alaska seas	United States	Non-profit, accredited Member of the Alaska stranding network coordinated by NOAA Fisheries Alaska Region.	Participates	·	USD 12,049,484 of revenue and USD 12,647,644 of expenses (Form… 2024
Anderson Cabot Center for Ocean Life, New England Aquarium (ACCOL), 2016 Manages the North Atlantic Right Whale Catalog for the North Atlantic Right Whale Consortium, of which the aquarium is a founding member: more than a million photographs and more than 830 right whales, living or dead, recorded… Scope: The north-west Atlantic, from the Gulf of Maine and Canadian waters to the south-eastern United States	United States	Non-profit, accredited Member of the Greater Atlantic Marine Mammal Stranding Network coordinated by NOAA Fisheries.	Participates	34 Scientists and technical specialists whose profile is published on the “…	·
Cascadia Research Collective (CRC), 1979 Long-term photo-identification of the humpback and blue whales of the north-east Pacific and of Hawaiian odontocetes, coupled with response work on strandings and disentanglements. Scope: Washington and the west coast of the United States, Hawaii; field work also in the Canadian Arctic, Alaska, British Columbia, Oregon, California…	United States	Non-profit, accredited Member of the west coast stranding network coordinated by NOAA Fisheries.	Participates	20 Staff members listed on the “Our Team” page (count of the online profiles…	USD 1,933,245 of revenue and USD 1,937,973 of expenses (Form… 2024
Center for Whale Research (CWR), 1976 Holds the world’s longest demographic series on a killer whale population: an annual census of the Southern Residents (J, K and L pods), with births and deaths recorded since the Orca Survey began in 1976. Scope: The Salish Sea: the Strait of Juan de Fuca, the San Juan Islands and the border waters between the United States and British Columbia	United States	Non-profit, accredited Census of the Southern Resident killer whales carried out under federal permit.	No	·	USD 1,082,052 of revenue and USD 841,028 of expenses (Form 990… 2024
Marine Mammal Center, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI MMC), 2008 Instrumentation and physiology: non-invasive tags, bioacoustics and sound propagation, deep dive physiology, tomographic imaging applied to carcasses, behavioural response studies on sonar. Scope: Global, with a concentration on the north-west Atlantic and the polar regions	United States	Non-profit, mandate not established	Participates	·	·
Marine Mammal Health and Stranding Response Program (NOAA Fisheries, Office of Protected Resources) (MMHSRP), 1992 The regulatory and health pivot of the American system: it authorises responders, centralises national stranding data, steers health biomonitoring and declares unusual mortality events. Scope: Waters under United States jurisdiction: 50 states, territories and tribal lands	United States	Public, mandated Federal programme founded on the 1992 amendments to the Marine Mammal Protection Act.	Coordinates	·	More than USD 4,000,000 awarded for the 2024 financial year by the… 2024
The Marine Mammal Center (TMMC), 1975 The largest veterinary hospital for marine mammals in the world, which backs the clinic with scientific output: 12 peer-reviewed papers and about 400 necropsies during the 2024 financial year, on toxicosis from… Scope: 600 miles of Californian coast (San Luis Obispo to Mendocino) and the island of Hawaii	United States	Non-profit, accredited NOAA permit no. 24359, the only body authorised on the central and northern Californian coast.	Participates	1500 volunteers	USD 22,939,156 of revenue and USD 22,993,706 of expenses (Form… 2024

Latin America and the Caribbean

Organisation	Country	Status and mandate	Strandings	Team	Budget
Instituto de Conservación de Ballenas (ICB), 1993 Runs the Programa Ballena Franca Austral in Argentina, begun in 1970-1971 by Roger Payne, the longest continuous scientific study of a whale species: close to 5,000 individuals photo-identified. Scope: Península Valdés (Chubut) and the south-west Atlantic; advocacy at Latin American scale and with the International Whaling Commission.	Argentina	Non-profit, mandate not established	Participates	18 People named on the “Acerca del ICB” page of the official site, count as at 12…	·
Laboratorio de Mamíferos Marinos, Centro para el Estudio de Sistemas Marinos (LAMAMA / CESIMAR-CONICET) Study of top predators and their interactions with fishing and tourism: estimates of population abundance and trend, trophic and isotopic ecology, behaviour, genetics, evolutionary history… Scope: The south-west Atlantic, the coasts of Argentine Patagonia, on a timescale reaching back 8,000 years for the isotopic ecology work.	Argentina	Public, no mandate	Participates	22 People named in the list “El Laboratorio de Mamíferos Marinos (LAMAMA) esta…	·
Centro Nacional de Pesquisa e Conservação de Mamíferos Aquáticos (CMA/ICMBio), 1990 The only Brazilian public centre wholly devoted to aquatic mammals, born of the Projeto Peixe-Boi launched in 1980, which became the Centro Nacional de Conservação e Manejo de Sirênios in 1990 and was widened to all aquatic mammals in… Scope: The whole Brazilian national territory, marine and inland waters. Headquarters in Santos (São Paulo), forward bases at Itamaracá (Pernambuco) and Porto de…	Brazil	Public, mandated National coordination of REMAB, ICMBio portarias no. 43/2011 and no. 1720/2024.	Coordinates	·	·
Instituto Aqualie, 2004 A Brazilian pioneer of satellite telemetry on large whales since the 2000s; has extended to passive acoustics, aerial surveys and drone photogrammetry, in particular on the franciscana (Pontoporia… Scope: The Brazilian coast and Amazonia, with cooperation in Chile (Caleta Chañaral de Aceituno), in South Georgia, in Antarctica through PROANTAR, in…	Brazil	Non-profit, no mandate	Participates	·	·
Instituto Baleia Jubarte (IBJ), 1996 Grown out of the Projeto Baleia Jubarte launched in 1988 when the Abrolhos marine national park was created, it monitors the humpback whale population rediscovered on that occasion: fluke photo-identification, genetic biopsies and… Scope: The Brazilian coast, with its core activity on the Abrolhos Bank (Bahia and Espírito Santo), a breeding area for the Atlantic humpback whale…	Brazil	Non-profit, accredited Entered on the official ICMBio table of REMAB, and in the REMASE and REMANE networks.	Participates	·	·
Laboratório de Mamíferos Aquáticos do Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazônia (Projeto Boto) (LMA/INPA), 1994 Projeto Boto, created in 1994 and coordinated by Vera da Silva, is the longest capture-mark-recapture study of the boto (Inia geoffrensis) and the tucuxi (Sotalia fluviatilis). The laboratory, which has existed for more than… Scope: The Brazilian Amazon basin, with long-term monitoring in the Mamirauá sustainable development reserve (Amazonas).	Brazil	Public, accredited Entered on the official REMANOR table of REMAB (ICMBio) for the state of Amazonas.	Participates	·	·
Centro Ballena Azul (CBA), 2000 Identified in 2003 in the Gulf of Corcovado a feeding and nursery area for the blue whale, and has since tracked its migration routes by satellite telemetry. Scope: The Chilean coasts, in particular the Gulf of Corcovado, Chiloé and northern Patagonia (Los Ríos and Los Lagos regions).	Chile	Non-profit, no mandate	Not established	·	·
Fundación Omacha, 1993 The South American reference on river dolphins, Inia geoffrensis and Sotalia fluviatilis, studied since 1992 at Puerto Nariño; it carries the South American programme for estimating river dolphin populations and the… Scope: Colombia: Amazonia, the Orinoco basin, the Caribbean and the Pacific, with regional work in South America.	Colombia	Non-profit, mandate not established National stranding guide co-written with the environment ministry, with no instrument cited.	Participates	26 People named on the “Equipo de trabajo” page of the official site, count as at 12…	·
Red Caribeña de Varamientos (Caribbean Stranding Network) (RCV / CSN), 1989 Research, rescue, rehabilitation and conservation of marine wildlife, mainly whales, dolphins and manatees; more than four dozen scientific publications and more than a hundred professional presentations in… Scope: Puerto Rico and the Caribbean as a whole.	Puerto Rico	Non-profit, accredited Stranding responses authorised and overseen by NOAA’s Southeast Regional Office.	Coordinates	·	·
Pro Delphinus (ProDelphinus), 1995 Works on the bycatch of small cetaceans, turtles, seabirds and sharks in artisanal fisheries, and on the fishing practices that can reduce it; keeps the dolphin museum assembled by… Scope: Peruvian waters and artisanal fishing communities along the whole coast; also the Peruvian Amazon for river dolphins.	Peru	Non-profit, no mandate	Not established	23 People named on the “Members” page of the official site, count as at 12 September…	·

Africa, Indian Ocean and Arabian Peninsula

Organisation	Country	Status and mandate	Strandings	Team	Budget
Port Elizabeth Museum at Bayworld, marine mammal collection and research (Bayworld / PEM) The largest marine mammal collection in the southern hemisphere and one of the ten largest in the world: more than 6,100 specimens, 44 cetacean species, 12 pinniped species and the dugong, assembled almost entirely from… Scope: The southern and eastern coasts of South Africa east of Mossel Bay; subantarctic expeditions (Marion, Gough, Bouvet) since 2014	South Africa	Public, accredited Member body of the South African Whale Disentanglement Network, the national disentanglement network.	Participates	·	·
Whale Unit of the Mammal Research Institute, University of Pretoria (MRI Whale Unit), 1985 Long-term monitoring of the South African southern right whale population, backed by a whale and dolphin database covering more than forty years, complemented by satellite tagging and acoustics… Scope: The southern African subregion and adjacent oceans: the South African EEZ, the Southern Ocean; collaborations with more than thirty organisations	South Africa	Public, accredited The Mammal Research Institute is a member body of SAWDN, an officially authorised team in South Africa.	Participates	3 permanent staff of the unit named on its team page: chief scientist…	·
Sea Search Research and Conservation, 2014 Cetacean bioacoustics: individual identification by signature whistle and abundance estimation by acoustic capture-recapture, applied to the common bottlenose dolphin in Namibia; work on Heaviside’s dolphin, on the dolphin… Scope: The southern African subregion: the South African and Namibian coasts, with two field bases in Namibia (Walvis Bay, Lüderitz)	South Africa and Namibia	Not established, mandate not established Walvis Bay stranding response team set up in 2009 on municipal funding.	Participates	18 team members named on the site’s “Team” page: 3 directors, 1 researcher…	·
Kenya Marine Mammal Research and Conservation (KMMREC) Citizen science applied to cetaceans: the network aggregates reports from fishers, divers, operators and managers, more than a hundred contributors in 2019, and produced 792 reports of 11 species of small… Scope: About 650 km of Kenyan coastline, from the Somali border to the Tanzanian border, coastal and offshore waters; working areas of…	Kenya	Not established, mandate not established Co-leads a network set up in 2011 with public agencies; partner of the Kenya Wildlife Service.	Participates	·	·
Cétamada, 2009 Monitoring of the humpback whales of the Sainte-Marie channel by photo-identification, acoustics and onboard cameras, entered into the Cétanet database; two doctoral theses under way and a MYSTRAL hydrophone project with GLOBICE (La… Scope: Madagascar: Sainte-Marie, Nosy Be, Fort-Dauphin, Mahambo, Majunga, Maroantsetra, Toliara; the Indian Ocean sanctuary	Madagascar	Non-profit, mandated Malagasy tourism ministry, mandate to oversee marine mammal watching, 2013, renewed…	Participates	·	·
Mauritius Marine Conservation Society (MMCS) Long-term monitoring of the spinner dolphins and Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins subject to dolphin watching, with a management plan for that activity as its outcome; work on the sperm whale with Ocean Alliance since… Scope: The waters of the Republic of Mauritius: Mauritius, Rodrigues, Saint Brandon; underwater archaeology at the scale of the south-western Indian Ocean	Mauritius	Non-profit, no mandate	Participates	·	·
Environment Society of Oman (ESO), 2004 The Arabian Sea humpback whale, a year-round resident and genetically isolated subpopulation, perhaps fewer than a hundred individuals off Oman, listed as Endangered on the IUCN Red List since 2008; photogrammetry by… Scope: The Sultanate of Oman: the Gulf of Masirah, Dhofar, Muscat, Musandam; regional participation at the scale of the Arabian Sea	Oman	Non-profit, mandated Agreement with the Environment Authority, member of the National Stranding Response Committee which it steers.	Participates	11 employees of the association named and photographed on the “ESO Staff” page of the…	·
IndoCet, cetacean research network of the western Indian Ocean, 2014 Produced the first regional assessment of strandings in the south-western Indian Ocean: 397 events and 1,232 animals between 2000 and 2020, 27 species, published in 2023 in the Journal of Cetacean Research and Management of the… Scope: The south-western Indian Ocean: more than 14,800 km of coast spread over nine countries and territories	Regional network, run from Réunion (France)	Mixed, no mandate	Coordinates	·	·

Asia

Organisation	Country	Status and mandate	Strandings	Team	Budget
Wildlife Conservation Society, Bangladesh programme, Bangladesh Cetacean Diversity Project (WCS Bangladesh / BCDP), 2004 Has worked on Bangladeshi cetaceans since 2004; in 2009 it identified the largest known population of Irrawaddy dolphins and in 2014 obtained the creation of the country’s first marine protected area, for dolphins… Scope: The Sundarbans, the coastal and estuarine waters of Bangladesh, the Bay of Bengal as far as the Swatch of No Ground canyon	Bangladesh	Non-profit, mandate not established Works under agreement with the government of Bangladesh, an agreement not attached to the dolphin network.	Coordinates	·	·
Institute of Hydrobiology, Chinese Academy of Sciences (中国科学院水生生物研究所) (IHB, CAS), 1950 Home to the 白鱀豚馆 (Baiji Dolphinarium), presented by the institute as the only aquarium in the world dedicated to the protection of and research on cetaceans; ex situ conservation, breeding and release of the Yangtze finless porpoise… Scope: The Yangtze basin: the river, Poyang and Dongting lakes, the Tian-e-zhou reserve; Chinese fresh waters	China	Public, mandate not established Leads the Yangtze Cetacean Protection Network with the support of the riparian local governments.	Coordinates	·	·
Cetacean Research Institute (고래연구소), National Institute of Fisheries Science (CRI), 2004 Assessment of the common minke whale stock by sighting surveys, population genetics and a DNA sequence register for individual identification, a tool for monitoring the Korean whale meat market; work on… Scope: Waters under South Korean jurisdiction (the East Sea, the Yellow Sea, the South Sea)	South Korea	Public, mandate not established Receives stranded marine mammals by a route described in the veterinary literature.	Participates	·	·
Ocean Park Conservation Foundation, Hong Kong (香港海洋公園保育基金) (OPCFHK), 2005 Both funder and operator: it funds Asian research projects through calls for proposals and runs the Hong Kong stranding scheme; the Chinese white dolphin (Sousa chinensis) is central to its remit… Scope: Stranding response limited to Hong Kong waters; funding of wildlife research projects at the scale of Asia	Hong Kong (China)	Non-profit, mandated Co-leads with the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department the sole Hong Kong response scheme…	Coordinates	·	HKD 20,806,600 of revenue (including 14,574,767 of donations) and 18,348,510… 2025
Institute of Cetacean Research (一般財団法人日本鯨類研究所) (ICR), 1987 The only Japanese institute wholly devoted to cetaceans: stock assessment, biological parameters, and a DNA register (DNA登録事業) used to monitor the traceability of whale meat on the Japanese market. Scope: The North Pacific (whale resource assessment surveys, the joint IWC/Japan IWC-POWER survey) and Japanese coastal waters; a strand…	Japan	Mixed, mandated Designated as a scientific research body on cetaceans by the Fisheries Agency.	Participates	35 Salaried staff of the institute (職員数) as at 31 March 2026: 2 advisers, the…	JPY 3,323,574,966 of ordinary revenue, of which JPY 2,885,622,919 of… 2025
National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo, department of zoology (国立科学博物館 動物研究部) (NMNS / 科博) Keeps the national record of Japanese strandings and carries out the reference necropsies; about 300 strandings are reported each year in Japan. Scope: The whole of the Japanese coast	Japan	Public, mandate not established Holds the national stranding database, with no instrument cited.	Holds the database	·	·
Philippine Marine Mammal Stranding Network (PMMSN), 2013 The only national Philippine stranding response scheme; publishes the national stranding reports and a field identification guide. Scope: The whole Philippine archipelago	Philippines	Mixed, mandated Memorandum of understanding with the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR).	Coordinates	·	·
Marine Biology and Cetacean Research Center, National Cheng Kung University (國立成功大學海洋生物及鯨豚研究中心) (MBCRC), 2009 The first Taiwanese body dedicated to the rescue of stranded cetaceans, combining rescue, rehabilitation, research and volunteer training; certified as an environmental education centre in December 2024. Scope: Taiwan, mainly the southern and eastern coasts of the island	Taiwan	Public, mandated Created at the request of the Forestry Bureau; rescue base of the MARN network.	Participates	·	·
Phuket Marine Biological Center, research centre for the marine and coastal resources of the upper Andaman Sea (PMBC), 1968 Thailand’s oldest marine research centre; an endangered marine species unit covering cetaceans and dugongs together, with a care centre and the Phuket aquarium. Scope: The upper Andaman Sea (Ranong, Phang-nga, Phuket); the DMCR scheme covers Thailand’s 24 coastal provinces through its regional centres	Thailand	Public, mandated Operates for the DMCR, its parent ministry, the upper Andaman Sea strand of the scheme.	Participates	·	·

Oceania

Organisation	Country	Status and mandate	Strandings	Team	Budget
Australian Marine Mammal Centre (Australian Antarctic Division) (AMMC), 2006 The first Australian national centre devoted to marine mammals, created in 2006 under the name Australian Centre for Applied Marine Mammal Science: passive acoustics using sonobuoys and moored recorders, satellite tracking… Scope: Australian waters and EEZ, the Australian Antarctic sector and the Indo-Pacific; hosts the secretariat of the IWC Southern Ocean Research Partnership	Australia	Public, mandated National centre created in 2006 by the Australian government, with AUD 2.5 million.	Participates	5 employees of the centre, to which a student is added, according to the institutional page…	·
Centre for Sustainable Aquatic Ecosystems, Marine Megafauna node, Murdoch University (successor to the Murdoch University Cetacean Research Unit) (CSAE / MUCRU) Ecology and health of bottlenose dolphins, dugongs and large cetaceans: energetics, drones, biologging, quantitative analysis, with a veterinary facility that gives access to causes of mortality. Scope: Western Australia (Shark Bay, Bunbury, the Kimberley) and the Indo-Pacific region	Australia	Public, mandate not established Operates under the DEC-WA and DEWHA protocols, its role described in the Australian report to the IWC.	Participates	·	·
Cetacean Ecology, Behaviour and Evolution Lab, Flinders University (CEBEL) At the interface of animal behaviour, population ecology and evolutionary biology: population structure, habitat use, social structure and health of threatened coastal dolphins, including the Australian humpback dolphin and the… Scope: South Australian waters (Spencer and St Vincent gulfs, the Port River) and the southern Australian coast	Australia	Public, no mandate	No	2 tenured academics listed as Staff on the Our Team page (Guido J	·
Whales and Climate Research Program, Griffith University, 2018 A five-year programme devoted to the effect of changing ocean conditions on the recovery of humpback whale populations, organised in four themes (whale ecology, ocean processes, marine geochemistry… Scope: The southern hemisphere: the east Australian coast and Gold Coast bay, South Africa, Brazil, Ecuador, Chile, Panama	Australia	Public, no mandate	No	·	·
Cetacean Ecology Research Group and Cetacean Pathology Unit, Massey University (CERG / CPU), 1999 Causes of and responses to strandings, health and human impacts, biology and life history of the common dolphin and the long-finned pilot whale, pathology and post mortem scanning. Scope: New Zealand, with work extending to the Southern Ocean (hourglass dolphin, Burmeister’s and spectacled porpoises)	New Zealand	Public, mandate not established The DOC draws on its pathology reports for notable cases, with no agreement cited.	Participates	13 3 staff (group leader, research officer, technician) and 10…	·
Department of Conservation, Te Papa Atawhai (DOC) The management authority for marine mammals and the national coordinator of stranding response, with its own scientific publications (the DOC Research and Development series) and its funding of research on bycatch… Scope: New Zealand, its territorial waters and its EEZ, the subantarctic islands	New Zealand	Public, mandated Authority legally responsible for the Marine Mammals Protection Act 1978 and for decisions during strandings.	Coordinates	·	·
Marine mammal research group, Department of Marine Science, University of Otago A long-term programme on Hector’s dolphin run since 1984, which has supplied most of the data behind the conservation measures for the species, and a photo-identification and acoustic study of the sperm whales of Kaikōura carried out with… Scope: The New Zealand coasts: Banks Peninsula, Kaikōura, Otago and the Catlins, submarine canyons, the subantarctic islands	New Zealand	Public, no mandate	Not established	·	·

The limits of this inventory

This list is not exhaustive and cannot be. It retains the organisations for which cetacean research is an established mission, and leaves aside tourist watching operators, which our directory of cetology bodies lists separately, as well as learned societies and expert groups, which publish and assess without running a programme of their own.

Status and mandate are established from what each organisation and its parent body publish. Sixteen entries carry the note “mandate not established”: it means that nothing was found, not that nothing exists. Several organisations in practice play a national role without any accessible text formalising it, and that is particularly true in Greece, Croatia and Japan.

The division by region is convenient rather than rigorous: several organisations work well beyond their home country, and international campaigns such as SCANS bring together institutes from several states. Finally, headcounts and budgets age quickly. Each figure here carries its reference year; where none is given, the source should be consulted.

Further reading: citizen science programmes show how these organisations rely on volunteer observers, and our encyclopaedia of cetology researchers presents the people behind these institutions.

Sources: institutional websites, activity reports and annual reports of each organisation, whose address appears in the name column; Form 990 filings with the United States tax administration for the privately incorporated bodies of the United States; budget resolutions of the meetings of the parties for ACCOBAMS and ASCOBANS. Inventory closed on 12 September 2026.