Dolphins, Porpoises, and Whales - IUCN

as to whether the drive fishery, mainly for bottlenose dolphins,
will continue on Penghu Island. A drive in late
February 1993, involving about 20 dolphins, resulted in
the release of all the captured animals (Chou, in litt.,
October 1993). Permits for live-capture, using a combination
of hoop nets and drives, are currently under consideration,
and fishermen continue to insist that dolphins
eat fish that would otherwise be available for the fisheries.
Thus there is still a need for monitoring cetacean bycatches
of Taiwanese vessels, as well as for making an inventory
of cetaceans inhabiting Taiwanese waters. As recommended
by the IWC Scientific Committee (IWC 1994),
studies of these kinds should be undertaken after consulting
experts on questionnaire surveys and sightings surveys.
A full description of methods should be provided
when the results of such studies are presented.
A series of interviews conducted at fishing ports from
1992 to 1994 was part of a new program to document the
marine mammals occurring in Taiwanese coastal waters.
The first in a series of vessel surveys, designed in part to
train local scientists in survey techniques and field identification,
was conducted in March 1994. A field guide to
Taiwanese cetaceans has been published (Chou 1994) and
is being distributed widely to scientists, fishermen, and
government officials.
Project 38
Investigate artisanal catches of cetaceans in the Lesser
Antilles and estimate sizes of affected populations
Artisanal hunts for cetaceans, mainly small to mediumsized
odontocetes, have operated in the Lesser Antilles
(centered at St. Vincent and St. Lucia) for decades
(Caldwell and Caldwell 1975, Price 1985, Reeves 1988).
No official records of catches have been kept, and documentation
has been sporadic. No attempt at stock assessment
has been made. Klinowska (1991) summarized
available information on these fisheries and called for
research and monitoring programs, particularly aimed at
the short-finned pilot whale which has been the principal
target species. She noted that in Japan, where short-finned
pilot whales are also hunted, there is evidence of isolated
local populations (Kasuya et al. 1988; also see Kasuya and
Tai 1993), of low productivity (Kasuya and Marsh 1984,
Kasuya and Tai 1993), and of "apparently more damaging
effects of selective fisheries for large animals"
(Klinowska 1991:260).
Landings of cetaceans should be monitored at sites
known or thought to have been used most intensively in
recent years (e.g. Barrouallie on St. Vincent and Vieux
Fort on St. Lucia). Fishermen who catch whales and dolphins,
as well as anyone otherwise involved in the smallcetacean
fisheries, should be interviewed for information
on such matters as historic and recent developments in the
enterprise, catch statistics, and product markets. A pre­
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liminary effort should be made to determine stock boundaries
and census the target populations. Such work would
initially have to be planned and conducted by foreign
experts, but the project should include a training component
for encouraging development of local (or at least
regional) interest and expertise. This project should
include, as possible and appropriate, use of the unpublished
data in the files of researchers who have worked
with these fisheries in the past (e.g. D.K. and M.C.
Caldwell, R.V. Walker, W.S. Price). Mortality in gillnets
and other fishing gear (Vidal et al. in press a) should be
considered in any attempt at stock assessment.
Project 39
Investigate bycatches and direct killing of
cetaceans in West Africa ("old" Project 17)
According to Perrin (1989:11) Mauritania, Senegal, and
Ivory Coast have documented histories of cetacean
exploitation (see Cadenat 1959). The little available information
indicates that both large-scale foreign and smallscale
domestic fisheries operating in these countries, as
well as in Morocco, Ghana, Nigeria, Benin, Gabon, and
Sierra Leone, involve significant bycatches of small
cetaceans. The tropical tuna fishery off West Africa
results in the killing of at least 3,300-5,000 dolphins per
year (T.A. Jefferson, pers. comm.). There may also be a
directed dolphin fishery in at least Senegal. Mortality of
cetaceans in fisheries off West Africa is largely unmonitored,
and the impacts on cetacean populations are
unknown. Coastal species such as Phocoena phocoena
and Sousa teuszii are of particular concern. A review of
the coastal fisheries, both artisanal and industrial, in all of
West Africa is still badly needed.
Since 1988, two projects intended as contributions to
the implementation of "old" Project 17 have been completed.
First, UNEP sponsored a training workshop in
1992 in Ghana, attended by representatives of fisheries and
conservation agencies in West African nations. Following
this workshop, proposals were received by UNEP from
many of the participants seeking to initiate cetacean
research programs in their respective countries. Second,
a field guide to marine mammals of West Africa was prepared
by T.A. Jefferson and B.E. Curry. This guide needs
to be translated before it is published and distributed to
focal centers in West African countries where programs
to investigate sightings, strandings, and catches are being
developed. The guide includes a summary of published
records for each species, sighting and stranding data forms,
and a dichotomous key for species identification. Recently
D. Robineau and M. Vely initiated a project to investigate
the biology of small cetaceans in Mauritania and Senegal.
The need remains for an outside expert or experts to
visit the West African nations, set up data-collection programs,
and train local fisheries biologists. The ultimate