PORTUGAL 28 May - 22 June 2009 Cetacean experts gather ahead of 61st IWC meeting

When cetacean experts gather in Madeira ahead of the 61st International Whaling Commission meeting (22-26 Jun 2009) they will pool information about the health and population size of the world's oceans. The data is usually dismissed as fanciful by one side or other of the commercial whaling dispute, and is also seen as unreliable because each country has its own way of counting. The figure for right whales, however, is likely to influence a tussle in the United States over ship speeds and sonar use.

The figures shape policy on the conservation of whale stocks and the management of whaling. 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.

One figure that both sides agree on is that there are only some 300 right whales in the world, and that the species in endangered. Since their migration route crosses major east coast shipping lanes, the very large and slow-moving right whales are highly vulnerable to ship collisions. Under a federal government proposal issued in October, large ships traveling along the east coast of the United States would have to slow to 10 knots (11.5 miles per hour) in designated areas used by North Atlantic right whales. The World Shipping Council has lobbied against the speed limit, insisting that "Large commercial ships are not a primary cause of unnatural mortality of Atlantic right whales."

Some experts maintain that mass whale strandings are linked to military exercises in the area.

The United States Supreme Court has agreed to review a series of lower court rulings that restrict the Navy's use of sonar in submarine detection training exercises off the coast of Southern California. 

The cetacean health assessments and population figures are important in other perennial issues at the full IWC meeting: aboriginal subsistence whaling; bycatch, infractions; killing methods and tourist whalewatching.

RELATED READING:

Ship Speed Limit Again Proposed to Aid Endangered Whales (ENS 12 Oct 2008)
http://www.nbcsandiego.com/news/green/Ship_Speed_Limit_Again_Proposed_to_Aid_Endangered_Whales.html