Alongside other delegates, the bleary-eyed members of the
noise working group assemble at 8am at the meeting hotel after a late-night
debate over the noise resolutions.
The day opens with another presentation on noise, this time
from the Oil and Gas Producers organisation focused on the propagation of noise
and then we enter into a discussion on whale-watching with a contribution from
the secretary of the Pelagos Sanctuary, Fanny Dubois.
The Humane Society International makes a cautious intervention
on whale watching further to presentations on feasibility studies in Tunisia and Morocco . Their representative says:
HSI welcomes the studies and notes that, over the years
that ACCOBAMS has worked on whale watching, the scientific evidence from around
the world of a negative impact of whale watching has accrued. Hence, in those
bodies where the technical development of whale watching is being discussed –
such as the Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Committee – we increasingly
speak of ‘Responsible Whale Watching’, which is what the Whale Watching ‘label’
of ACCOBAMS is also trying to address. In practice, this means the careful
balancing of the commercial and educational benefits of whale watching against
an approach that ensures that the animals concerned are not negatively impacted.
Further advice on how this may be achieved can be obtained from specialist
bodies including Whale and Dolphin Conservation and the IWC’s long-standing whale
watching subcommittee.
Meanwhile, draft resolutions are piling up on the
desks of the delegates and the busy members of the secretariat are working the
photo-copier hard.
The drafts cover population studies (and the urgent need to
conduct them across the region); the implications of Rio +20 for ACCOBAMS and texts
covering the rules of procedure for the various bodies of the agreement
(including the heated potato of who sits in the Scientific Committee), the
working of the supplementary conservation fund and so on.
As lunch approaches the noise resolutions have not yet
managed to enter the meeting room. Will they make it…. ?
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