Whales Still Threatened Worldwide

The survival of the world’s whales was once again on the agenda at the 60th Meeting of the International Whaling Commission in Santiago de Chile. But this time things were a bit different. William Hogarth (USA), the Commission’s Chair, appealed to members not to submit any new resolutions or proposals and nearly all countries complied with his request. Even Japan refrained from making its usual demands concerning coastal whaling – which is not to say that this type of whaling will no longer take place. Only Denmark submitted a proposal for a catch quota of ten humpback whales annually for Greenland for the next five years. This was rejected by a majority of 36 votes to 29 and 2 abstentions. For the first time, the EU countries were forced to adopt a common position. Presumably the other Nordic countries were not too happy about this, but the EU-countries voted no.

Brazil , Argentina and South Africa refrained from making a proposal to establish a South Atlantic whale sanctuary as it was clear that it would not be accepted. Apart from this, delegates concentrated primarily on “the future of IWC”. A working group, which is to meet twice within the next year, was tasked with charting the course for a future IWC by June 2009. “This small working group offers us a chance to overcome the deadlock that has characterized IWC negotiations for years,” said Gert Lindemann, State Secretary in Germany ’s Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection. Germany is one of the 25 members of the working group.

It remains to be seen where this new course will lead. Whale sanctuaries, indigenous and coastal whaling, environmental factors, tourism and research, fisheries and bycatch are among the relevant issues. Small cetaceans (i.e. dolphins and porpoises), which have thus far received scarce attention from the IWC, are another topic requiring urgent action. Thousands of these animals die due to human activities and major changes are needed.

Only goodwill can bring about changes in the whaling nations of Iceland , Japan and Norway . A whaling moratorium, a sort of truce with the whales, has been in force for 22 years. The IWC prohibited whaling for commercial purposes in 1982, effective from 1985/86. Since then, this regulation has been tenaciously dodged by the whaling nations. Japan allegedly catches whales for scientific and research purposes, Norway has entered a reservation and does not feel bound by the regulations and Iceland makes use of both options. Indigenous populations in Greenland , Alaska , Russian and on the Caribbean Island of St. Vincent practice indigenous subsistence whaling and in Korea by-catches of minke whales in fishing nets are so alarmingly frequent that they are tantamount to whaling.

According to official sources, 1,926 great whales were harpooned in the 2007/08 season, 27 more than in 2006/07. This is the second highest catch quota for minke whales, Bryde’s whales, sperm whales, fin whales, sei whales, gray whales and Greenland right whales since the entry into effect of the moratorium in 1986. If Japan ’s operations in the Antarctic Whale Sanctuary had not been disrupted by two environmental organizations they would have led to the death of 935 Antarctic minke whales rather than 551. More than 30,000 whales have been shot since the moratorium entered into force, with no consequences for the perpetrators.

In addition to these quotas, another 278 whales were officially reported killed in 278, victims of by-catch or ship strikes. However, the number of unreported cases is undoubtedly much higher. The number of cetacean (whale, dolphin, porpoise) deaths by by-catch alone extrapolated five years ago by the IWC’s Scientific Committee was 300,000. An equal number of seals, plus innumerable seabirds such as albatrosses, marine turtles and fish that were not intended to be caught, so-called non-target must be added to the death toll.

Several endangered populations, such as the Baltic harbour porpoise, minke whales in the Sea of Japan and the western Pacific gray whale definitely cannot sustain such catch rates. In 2007, the Baiji, or Chinese river dolphin, was classified as “extinct” after an expedition failed to find any animals in the Yangtze River . The Amazon river dolphin, or Boto, the Chilean dolphin, also referred to as black dolphin, Hector’s dolphin in the waters off New Zealand or the Mexican vaquita may be the next to disappear before long.

Every year, the IWC’s Scientific Committee which always meets four weeks ahead of the Commission, underscores that whales are subjected to increasingly serious anthropogenic problems. A new Working Group is now dealing with skin diseases affecting the animals, which are suffering from fungus infections and viruses. While bacteria and fungi do of course occur in the marine habitat, scientists assume that chemical pollutants are damaging the natural protective layers of the skin and weakening the immune system. Open wounds make the animals more susceptible to diseases such as pox and herpes.

Since 2006, the scientists from around the world are also looking into the increasing number of whale strandings, the majority of which probably occurs due to anthropogenic causes. In addition to by-catch, seismic surveys conducted by the oil industry, and the use of military sonar, the accumulation of pollutants is suspected to cause cetacean deaths. Environmental pollutants such as mercury, cadmium, DDT or PCBs negatively affect the immune system of the animals. As a result, they increasingly contract viral infections which apparently lead to inflammation of the inner ear and resultant problems of orientation. Other whales die because fishing gear gets caught in their mouth or because plastic waste block their digestive track. They starve miserably on a full stomach.

Anthropogenic influences on whales are also discussed by the Conservation Committee which was founded in Berlin in 2003 and has met before every Commission meeting since then. The Scientific Committee has been trying to analyze the by-catch problem since 2002 . For fifteen years it has, moreover, been pointing out that current by-catch rates for whales and dolphins are by no means sustainable.

The Society for the Conservation of Marine Mammals ( GSM ) believes that the IWC should deal with great whales, but also with the small cetaceans (dolphins and porpoises) that it has thus far largely ignored. The IWC needs restructuring. Needless to say, this must not mean that only the interests of the whaling nations are accommodated. In 2006, during a meeting on “normalization of the IWC”, an invitation to a meeting in Tokyo was extended to “all those interested”. The catch was in the “small print”: participants were required to sign a statement declaring that they did not oppose commercial whaling… We shall see what results a new attempt at restructuring will achieve. A rethink is desperately needed if we want the whales and our seas to survive.

The 61st meeting of the IWC is scheduled to take place on the Portuguese Atlantic Island of Madeira in 2009. It remains to be seen whether whalers and conservationists will be able to agree on anything. In any case, whaling should once again be controlled by the IWC. It seems clear, however, that more whales will be hunted – whatever euphemism may be used to describe this.
Petra Deimer/ Translation Rüdiger Strempel