SANTIAGO 1-22 June 2008 Cetacean experts gather ahead of 60th International Whaling Commission meeting. IWC at risk of extinction?

When cetacean experts gather in Chile ahead of the annual International Whaling Commission meeting (23-27 Jun), one of their sessions will look at the future of the organization. Conservation bodies are worried the IWC is at risk of extinction.

A key task during these expert sessions is to assess the numbers for each species and the risks to whales. The data, which is always contested because each country has its own way of counting, is used to establish quotas and regulations at the main meeting. The session on Jun 19 looking at the IWC's future amounts to a health check on the organization itself.

There is complete agreement that The Revised Management Scheme Working Group, established in 1994, has not progressed in its efforts to produce a formula for counting whales, setting safe catch limits for certain stocks and rules for observing the catch.

Another of the few areas of agreement in the IWC is that the level of polarization between opponents of commercial whaling and the proponents, led by Japan, make it difficult to reach consensus on anything. The 2007 meeting in Alaska raised the issue of the relevance of such a divided body, and the decision was made to hold intercessional meetings to examine the function and effectiveness of the IWC as a whole. The IWC committee assigned to look at the question is likely to be delivering its report at the main meeting.

Preliminary meetings and set-up begin at the Sheraton Hotel in Santiago on May 30. The Scientific Committee meets Jun 1-13, followed by committees and working groups Jun 16-19. .

Experts held meetings on ways to reinforce whaling conservation ahead of the 2007 IWC meeting in Alaska. Monica Medina, director of the Pew Whale Conservation Project, noted that seven years into the new millennium, the IWC has hardly changed since it was created in 1949. She called for reform, arguing that "the world has changed, our understanding of the ocean has changed, whale watching has become prominent, international environmental governance needs have changed, and new environmental threats to whale populations have emerged. ... There is general agreement among the commissioners that the institution is itself at risk of extinction. If we can resolve the on-going controversy over commercial whaling, we will be in a better position to address conservation comprehensively, and bring the IWC into the 21st century.”

Aboriginal subsistence whaling, bycatch, infractions, killing methods and tourist whalewatching are among other issues that will be taken up by IWC sub-committees. Some whalewatching impact issues include the potential for harm of "swim with" programs -- when tourists are given the opportunity to mingle in the water with small cetaceans like dolphins. Sep/07

RELATED READING:

Blue whale sighting in BC inspires optimism (Canada.com 24 Aug 2007)
http://www.canada.com/topics/news/national/story.html?id=62e85fa2-d8e2-440c-9ace-6c5c5187ded6&k=37957

Norway's whale catch up slightly. Quota unfilled (Reuters 31 Aug 2007)
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/L31138769.htm

Iceland Puts Down Its Whaling Harpoons for a Year (ENS 27 Aug 2007)
http://www.ens-newswire.com/ens/aug2007/2007-08-27-04.asp

Scientific whaling to be put under a microscope (Univ. Queensland 24 Aug 2007)
http://www.uq.edu.au/news/?article=12795

Hypocrisy endangers IWC's future (Japan Times 22 Apr 1996)
http://luna.pos.to/whale/gen_art_mckee.html