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| Waikiki Seafront |
One of these issues is marine debris and the first IWC workshop was held in March 2013 at the Woodshole Oceanographic Institute in the USA. This mainly evaluated the state of knowledge of this threat to cetaceans.You can find its report here and a review of the topic that I wrote here before the workshop..
The second workshop was in August this year in Honolulu, Hawaii (so close to the Commission meeting that it was a battle to get it's report ready in time). The full report is here and I gave a summary report of this meeting to the IWC Conservation Committee (CC) and here is what I said (which includes the acknowledgments that did not make it to the CC report):
Simmonds reported that were two IWC
marine debris workshops (in effect a two-phase process) since the last meeting
of the Commission.
The first, reported to the Scientific Committee was held at
the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in May 2013 and this dealt mainly with
assessing the current status of knowledge of the impacts of debris in terms of
entanglement and ingestion by cetaceans and the emerging threat posed by
microdebris. It also provided some
recommendations for the second workshop. This second workshop was held in
Honolulu from 5-7 August 2014 and it was charged with trying to find ways to
mitigate the threats posed by marine debris.
A considerable amount of preparatory work was required for
this workshop especially as we were outreaching to a number of other key
international bodies and I would like to thank Claire Bass and Sarah Baulch in
particular for preparing materials ahead of the meeting and helping to identify
and build those links. Thirty-four participants from ten countries attended,
including several from the Pacific region. Importantly, the United Nations Food
and Agriculture Organisation, the United Nations Environment Programme and its
Convention for Migratory Species were all represented, as were relevant
industry bodies and a number of non-governmental organisations concerned with
marine debris. It transpired that the workshop coincided with the predicted
landfall of two hurricanes in the Hawaiian archipelago and I would like to
thank the participants and secretariat team for their stoicism in continuing
with the workshop whilst this almost unprecedented scenario played out.
Fortunately, these weather systems eventually
reached Honolulu as a tropical storm with limited impact. The workshop may also
be the first IWC event to meet in part in the empty premises of a night club
when our original meeting room proved not to be viable because of building
noise. So we were both stoical and adaptable!
The objectives for the workshop are detailed in Rep 04 and the
workshop reviewed initiatives from around the world that are practically addressing
marine debris in general and entanglement of cetaceans in particular. These
initiatives ranged from high-level agreements between countries to address the
issue, to efforts in the field to remove materials directly from the seas and
recycle or burn it for energy, to efforts to disentangle whales and other
cetaceans snared in netting.
The Workshop emphasised that the issue of marine debris,
while important for cetaceans, was a major environmental issue in its own right
that was already the subject of a number of important international and
national initiatives and that there is a need for improved coordination to help
bring these initiatives together. Any lack of strong evidence of quantified
impacts for some cetacean species for some debris types at present should not
preclude efforts to remove existing debris and prevent future accumulation in
the marine environment. It also agreed that from an animal welfare perspective,
the absolute number of cetacean entanglements and the associated suffering and
times to death are unacceptable, irrespective of population level effects.
The Workshop agreed that the IWC’s primary contribution
should be to ensure that cetacean-related issues are adequately represented
within existing initiatives and that its strong scientific and other expertise
is made available in collaborative efforts.
It strongly recommended as the highest priority that the IWC
and its Secretariat work together with the Secretariats of the other major IGOS
and RMFOs relevant to this issue to ensure consistency of approach, synergy of
effort and exchange of information to develop appropriate mitigation strategies
that recognise that (a) prevention is the ultimate solution but that (b)
removal is important until that ideal is realised.
The workshop went on to make recommendations about suitable
collaborations, stressing the importance of working with fishermen and the
relevant international bodies and relating to how IWC member nations can help
in data collection. It also called on the IWC Scientific Committee to explore
ways of combining estimates of oceanic debris and information on cetaceans to
identify priorities for mitigating and managing the impacts of marine debris on
cetaceans.
As a workshop focused on mitigation, it also looked at how
outreach can be improved including highlighting the IWC’s own work and
potential in this.
Finally, the Workshop endorsed the planned IWC workshop
(anticipated March-April 2016) on prevention of the incidental capture of
cetaceans. It agrees that this should incorporate entangling debris as well as
in-use fishing gear. It reiterates the importance of ensuring participation of
experts from industry and relevant IGOs especially FAO and the Workshop also appreciated
the excellent progress made by the IWC’s disentanglement programme (led by the
redoubtable David Matilla) and encouraged all members and non-members of the
IWC to take advantage of the IWC disentanglement network especially in those
regions where entanglement represents a threat at the population level (e.g.
Western Pacific, Eastern South Atlantic, and Arabian Sea).
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| Meeting in a night club - note the dancing platforms/cages to right and left |
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