Save the migratory species in 2020 - the harbour porpoise at CoP 13

HSI and three other non-governmental organisations brought a proposal for a concerted action for two European harbour porpoise populations.

You can find the proposal - which was agreed by the meeting - HERE.

And the speech presenting it was as follows:

Thank you – I am honoured to present this proposal to the CoP contained in document 28.2.7 Rev on the behalf of four non-governmental organisations Humane Society International, Orca, Whale and Dolphin Conservation and Coalition Clean Baltic.

Chairman, as we have just heard in the context of several other species, the history of small cetacean conservation around the world is indeed increasingly an unhappy one, as we repeatedly move too slowly to recognise problems and respond to diminishing populations.

This proposal for a concerted action is focused on two small, distinct and imperilled populations of porpoise , Phocoena phocoena, - a species in all too many ways similar to the vaquita. The first population, the Baltic harbour porpoise sits in its limited range balanced on the edge of extinction and has long been recognised to be in need of urgent conservation action; the second, the population of the Iberian peninsula has been more recently recognised as distinctive. There is considerable evidence that the effects of removals mainly resulting from fisheries activities and other factors, including chemical pollution, affecting these populations are unsustainable and the road to their extinction is paved with our indifference.  

The proposal reflects the desire of the proponent organisations to support the range states in implementing timely actions. These populations are covered by two of the CMS daughter agreements – ASCOBANS and ACCOBAMS – and an action plan – the Jastarnina Plan for the Baltic porpoise – and we strongly support these agreements and this plan. However, plans and words must now result in real actions.

Chairman, we have listened to many discussions about the critical situation of the Baltic porpoise over more than two decades and with my NGO colleagues and other experts we have helped to develop plans for it – but the reality is that it survives now only in spite of our inaction, not because of our actions.

Hence, we also respectfully request the range states to list the populations appropriately on the CMS appendices as soon as possible and implement appropriate actions before it is too late. For these populations and for many other small cetaceans around the world, unless we swiftly recognise their situation and appropriately respond, one by one they will simply wink out of existence. The world will then be a poorer place; the ecosystems less complete and more fragile; and our children will never get to see an animal that was once common in inshore waters across Europe.

++++

As a small celebration of the harbour porpoise, I had some stamps made up - with thanks to Lucy Molleson for lending her image to the effort.

Watching the stamps being created

ssss