ASCOBANS COP 8 - The Conclusion

Above: 'Observer Row' - from the left: Maylis of ACCOBAMS; Ida of Coalition Clean Baltic; Peter of ECS/Seawatch; Mark of HSI; Chris, Fabian and Fiona of WDC; Niki of Wild Migration and Aimee of WWF. 

The meeting concluded today in lickity- splick time! All resolutions (bycatch, strandings, workplan and budget included) were approved after amendment - bycatch and budget perhaps causing the most debate. 

So, this small agreement for small cetaceans survives for another few years and the parties have recommitted themselves to addressing the things that are harming and hurting cetaceans in the agreement area. An increasing commitment to addressing welfare was apparent in many resolutions. 

Here's how the official release from the secretariat highlights some of the meeting's conclusions: 

"Bycatch remains the single largest threat to marine animals worldwide. A resolution adopted today gives fresh energy to the efforts to address this issue in the northern and western European regions, with the aim of reducing mortality as far as possible towards zero"

and

"Although Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCBs) were phased out in the European Union in the 1980s, they can still be found in the bodies of many marine animals in alarming concentrations. Such toxin loads can suppress the immune system and reproduction, and causes lactating mothers to pass on the contamination to their offspring in their milk.  Further study on the effects of pollution, especially to identify hotspots of PCB pollution, is necessary....."

and

"Underwater munitions, a legacy of the two world wars, remain dangerous to humans and animals alike, thus, international coordination is required to address this problem.  Despite their age, submerged bombs can still explode and some contain highly toxic substances, such as mustard gas.  The development of alternative methods of removal aside from detonation will alleviate the threat of injury of animals from such controlled explosions."

The full text is HERE.

Here's the underwater munitions resolution receiving its final blessing

Likewise the strandings resolution

Just to explain what this resolutions commits countries to:

1.  Encourages Parties that have not yet done so to establish national strandings response
networks fitting to their specific situation... including examining  stranded  cetaceans  at  post-mortem  where  appropriate...

2.  Further  encourages  Parties  to  support  their  stranding  networks  with  the  funds
necessary to carry out their work, and to facilitate knowledge exchange and capacity-building
between networks;

3.  Invites national stranding networks to share experiences and data, as appropriate and
through relevant fora, with their counterparts in other countries in order to help build capacity
throughout the ASCOBANS Area, and beyond;

4.  Requests the Advisory Committee and the Secretariat to engage actively in the ongoing
work on best practice guidelines for  response to  stranding events  and establishment of an
updated necropsy protocol  within the frameworks of the International  Whaling Commission,
ACCOBAMS and the European Cetacean Society;

and so forth. Full text will be published on the ASCOBANS website but this gives a flavour.

And the meeting concluded before lunch. Everyone is thanked and we range out onto the sunny streets of Helsinki again - which is an excuse for a few more photos of this fascinating city of fine buildings, boats and trams.

Boats in the harbout

For me the particular heroes of the meeting were Peter Evans (below) - who guided the bycatch resolution to conclusion..... and 

Peter Evans

Frau Heidrun Frisch-Nwakanma (below with her trademark celebratory ice-cream) - who ably supported by the CMS Secretariat team makes making complex ammendments to resolutions (in her second language) look easy!

Heidrun Frisch-Nwakanma

Thanks to the Chair for his excellent an good humoured guidance and to all parties for allowing a very fulsome contribution to be made by 'Observer Row'.