Marine NZ

Date Posted: 18 Jun 2009 | 1 Comments

IWC 61 is set to be an important meeting for the future of the IWC and for whale conservation management worldwide. Learn about highlights for progress in Pacific Islands region on whale conservation last year. Read the report from the Anual meeting of the South Pacific Whale Research Consortium

Dear Pacific Island colleagues and those from further afield!,

Please find the link to the Pew Statement for the forthcoming IWC Commission meeting 22-26 June 2009 in Portugal http://www.pewwhales.org/iwc-madeira/index.html

IWC 61 is set to be an important meeting for the future of the IWC and for whale conservation management worldwide. Pew will support a strong team to IWC 61 lead by Leslie Busby ( Pew Whale Project Coordinator) with key advisers from the Varda Group (Remi Parmentier, Duncan Currie) and from the Pew Nodes (Caribbean, West Africa, South America and the Pacific Islands). From the Pacific Islands Sue Miller Taei (Pew Pacific Node Coordinator/CI Pacific Islands) and Tiare Holm ( Palau Conservation Society) will be in Madeira from 21 -26 June.

I would like to take this opportunity to highlight fantastic progress in Pacific Islands region on whale conservation with the following key achievements in the last year:

Ninth meeting of the South Pacific Whale Research Consortium (SPWRC) in NZ in February , including meetings of the Research and Conservation Working Groups. The Pew Node supported Pacific Island participation from Tonga, Fiji, Samoa and the Solomon Islands. Research and conservation issues and needs were discussed across the region.  Follow up in many areas had been great such as the development of a SPWRC initiative to assist the Solomon Islands understand issues and impacts from the dolphin trade and drive hunts. SPWRC researcher Marc Oremus is currently in the Solomon Islands working with Fisheries and Environment Ministries on this important issue. The SPWRC report to the IWC is attached to this item.
First International Conference on Marine Mammals and MPAs (Maui, Hawaii March 2009) – the keynote speaker Dr Eric Hoyt highlighted and congratulated countries from the Pacific Islands region for their leadership in whale and related marine species sanctuaries in the region. Attached is the slide from Lui Bell’s (SPREP) key presentation that shows clearly a significant and consolidated for cetacean conservation (note NZ has full protection status for all cetaceans under the Marine Mammal Protection Act). The region was well profiled and had strong Pacific input from SPREP, Samoa, Palau, Fiji, Vanuatu, Tonga, American Samoa, Niue and NGOs including Pew, SPWRC, USP and IFAW. In particular the link for many countries with their Programme of Work on Protected Areas showed exciting potential opportunities for cetacean conservation needs to be part of national protected area development.  For more information please see:
http://www.icmmpa.org/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/icmmpa_execsummary.pdf

Pacific Island Regional Guidelines for Whale Watching Tourism (SPREP/IFAW/Operation Cetaces) arising from a regional workshop held in April 2008 – this form of tourism is growing in our region (45% per year for the period of 1998-2005 and worth more than USD $21million – review available) and there are tour operations in 14 Pacific Island countries and territories.  In countries like Tonga whale watching is now the centerpiece of their tourism promotion and to recognize this the Princess Pitolevu became a Royal Patron of Whales in 2008 and has established a trust for whale conservation in Tonga supported by IFAW, Tonga Visitors Bureau and the Tongan Whale Watch Operator’s Association. I have more information and reports on work carried out on whale watching in our region for those interested.
Australia’s Marine Mammal Centre has announced the establishment of the SORP (Southern Ocean Research Partnership) –a multi million dollar investment in cetacean research including plans to support work in the Pacific Islands region.

These are but a few of the achievements for whale conservation management across our region, some of these will be tabled at the IWC 61.  Momentum, opportunities and international recognition of Pacific Island cetacean conservation is significantly increasing in our region and will be looked at in the forthcoming SPREP/CMS Meeting of the Parties to the MOU on Pacific Cetaceans ( July 2009, Noumea, see attached).

HOWEVER directly relevant to the IWC and decisions that may or may not be taken this year we have a sobering reminder of how wrong whaling management can be. The extensive illegal whaling led by the former Soviet Union (http://www.sciencemag.org ), including the just tabled news at the IWC that Japan was party to this illegal whaling when they acted as the IWC International Observers on the USSR’s boats, gives cause for international concern and reflection and is reported as:

“As is now well known, between 1947and 1973 the Soviet Union conducted large-scale illegal whaling throughout much of the North Pacific, Indian, South Atlantic, and Southern Oceans (Yablokov, 1994, 1995; Yablokov et al.,1998; Ivashchenko et al., 2007; Berzin, 2008; Clapham and Ivashchenko, 2009). This campaign involved the killing of animals of all ages and species, irrespective of quotas, regulations, and protected status established at the time by the International Whaling Commission (IWC).”

further

“In the Southern Hemisphere alone, almost 100,000 whales were secretly killed by the U.S.S.R. and not reported to the IWC (Yablokov et al., 1998; Clapham and Baker, 2002). Of this total, some 46,000 were humpback whales.”

Lessons from this management debacle for both whale and other high seas resources must be recognized and are truly sobering for those who live in the South Pacific – this is why many Pacific Island states do not have valuable humpback whale watching eg Fiji – simply put the whales that used to go these breeding grounds were hunted to the brink of extinction – we are very lucky that combined with the foresight of the late King of Tonga who banned whaling in 1978, that Tonga’s breeding grounds survived albeit in miniscule numbers ( estimated to be down to ca.15 breeding females at the time of the King’s ban).

Impacts from this massive illegal harvest and its impacts on humpback populations in the region has resulted in the recognition of the endangered status ( IUCN Red List 2008) of Oceania’s Humpback Whales , formerly classified as vulnerable based on SPWRC research These populations show no or limited signs of recovery unlike other humpback whales in many parts of the world – no surprise for guessing a key reason why!  This has prompted the SPWRC and SPREP to develop a Recovery Plan process and this will be presented at the forthcoming SPREP CMS Pacific Cetacean MOU meeting and we are hopeful Australia and others will support this initiative. Humpback whales are an increasing valuable resource to our region:

“In 2005, an estimated 15,694 tourists undertook humpback whale watching trips conducted by approximately 49 operators in the South Pacific Islands region (excluding Australia and New Zealand).For 2005, the direct benefit generated by humpback whale watching in the South Pacific Islands region is estimated at US$1,298,955 and the total economic value at US$3,666,955 (excluding Australia and New Zealand).” FFEM/Operation Cetaces report ( pdf available)

This information raises the question “what income have developing Pacific States missed out on due to over exploitation and illegal whaling in recent history?” – it would be in the orders of millions and millions of dollars of lost tourism revenue - another sobering thought for our region.

This is a long email, but I hope you will agree has important information for our region and the future of the whales and perhaps even the future of the IWC.  Please do not hesitate to contact me on any of the above and to circulate to those interested.. I sincerely hope that the achievements highlighted above and sobering lessons from the past can address the somewhat biased views of the region perceived at IWC meetings, clearly from within the region the Pacific Islands continue to have and build a strong conservation stance on cetacean issues.

I will be attending the IWC as part of the Pew Delegation, I look forward to seeing IWC member Pacific representatives from Palau, Solomon Islands, Tuvalu, Kiribati, Nauru and the Marshall Islands and will enjoy resuming our lively debates from Chile. 

Soifua,

Sue Miller Taei

Pew Pacific Whale Conservation Node Coordinator

CI Pacific Islands Marine Programme Manager

Posted in: International News •

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