Nelissen and van der Velde also note that the IWC’s resolution 2007-121 states that “fin whales in the Southern Hemisphere are currently classified as endangered.” This statement is correct but it does not mean that the population could not sustain a continuing harvest at some level. The classification as “endangered” simply means that the species meets at least one of the listing criteria for the IUCN Red List – in this case an “observed, estimated, inferred or suspected population size reduction of 50% over the last 10 years or three generations, whichever is the longer.”