Dolphins, Porpoises, and Whales - IUCN

However, some IWC members have consistently and
forcefully resisted such broadening. They maintain that
the 1946 convention should be interpreted as applying
only to the large whales (including the minke whale but
not some of the equally large or larger beaked whales
and killer whale, for example).
There is also a deep schism within the IWC membership
between pro-whaling and anti-whaling forces, and
this schism has brought the Commission to near collapse
(Andresen 1993). It is axiomatic that restrictions on
human activity are most effective, over the long term,
when the people affected by them regard the restrictions
as legitimate and fair. Whaling (or would-be whaling)
countries do not regard many of the IWC's recent decisions
as legitimate or fair. At the same time, many nonwhaling
countries are deeply distrustful of any resumption
of commercial whaling, considering the legacy of overexploitation
of stocks and the failure of whaling companies
to disclose full information on catches (cf. Yablokov
1994). Canada withdrew from the IWC in 1982, and
Iceland followed in 1992. Norway and Japan have openly
considered withdrawal as an option. At least one regional
organization, the North Atlantic Marine Mammal
Commission, has emerged as an institutional alternative to
the IWC (cf.Hoel 1993).
Restrictions on some fishing activities also need to be
developed and enforced, not only to protect cetacean
stocks but to protect the stocks of other target and nontarget
sfjecies. One example is the Italian driftnet fishery
for swordfish, which regularly takes cetaceans, including
sperm whales, Cuvier's beaked whales, and various other
small and medium-sized species, as a bycatch
(Notarbartolo di Sciara 1990). Although such fishing is, in
principle, regulated by European Community laws to
reduce the bycatch (e.g. permissible maximum net length
is 2.5 km), strong evidence is available suggesting that
large numbers of vessels continue to use nets that are 4-6
times longer than allowed (G. Notarbartolo di Sciara, pers.
comm.). Enforcement of existing laws is inadequate.
Also, large-scale fielagic driftnet fishing is on the increase
in North African countries where there are no maximumnet-length
regulations. Three avenues need to be pursued
if the driftnet problem in the Mediterranean Sea is to be
brought under control: (a) regulations of driftnetting must
be implemented by non-European nations, (b) existing regulations
need to be better enforced by governmental
authorities, and (c) an independent monitoring program is
needed to check compliance and document bycatches. As
emphasized by IWC (1992a:207) the consequences to the
fishermen and their communities of banning driftnet fishing
should be studied, and a changeover to less wasteful
techniques should be supported and monitored.
15
Ensuring that Any Use of
Cetaceans as Resources
Is Sustainable
The term "sustainable development" has often been used
in recent years as a replacement for "conservation" in the
environmental lexicon. As defined and championed in
the Brundtland Report (World Commission on
Environment and Development 1987), sustainable development
offers hope that the needs and aspirations of
human societies can be realized without irreversibly reducing
the earth's biological diversity and productive capacity.
The Second World Conservation Strategy defined
sustainable development as "improving the quality of
human life while living within the carrying capacity of
supporting ecosystems" (lUCN/UNEP/WWF 1991:10).
"Sustainable use" was interpreted to mean using renewable
resources "at rates within their capacity for renewal"
(lUCN/UNEP/WWF 1991:10). The idea of sustainable
use has been interpreted by some as both necessary
(human survival depends on our ability to use the earth's
resources) and beneficial for conservation (by using a
resource we create an incentive to ensure that it is perpetually
renewed). However, in the case of cetaceans some
conservationists have argued that consumptive use (i.e.
killing of the animals) is neither necessary nor beneficial.
Their arguments have been strongly challenged by some
conservationists from maritime nations in the Northern
Hemisphere, whose economies are largely dependent on
exploitation of marine resources.
Apart from the moral and ethical questions that have
been raised, both for and against whaling, there have been
serious scientific problems with determining "safe" harvest
levels (i.e. removal rates that are sustainable on a
long-term basis). In the case of many, if not most,
cetacean populations, any regime of sustainable use that
might be initiated today would involve a wild population
that is either (1) already below the current carrying capacity
level due to a history of direct and indirect exploitation,
(2) smaller than it was historically because of a
reduced carrying capacity, or (3) both of these. It is generally
agreed that management of cetacean exploitation
should be more than mere replacement-yield management
and that it should ensure that depleted populations are
allowed to recover while non-depleted populations remain
large and unthreatened. The IWC Scientific Committee
has worked intensively from 1986 into the early 1990s to
develop revised management procedures (RMP) for commercial
whaling that meet these requirements (Kirkwood
1992, Gambell 1993). The version of the RMP adopted by
the IWC at its annual meeting in 1991 (and refined since