Dolphins, Porpoises, and Whales - IUCN

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The CSG was established in the 1960s, with Masaharu Nishiwaki as its first chairman and Sidney Brown as deputy chairman. After a brief period in the mid-1970s when it was combined with other specialist groups to form the Marine Mammal Specialist Group, the CSG was reformed in 1979, with Michael Tillman as chairman. William Perrin assumed the chair in 1984 and was joined by Leatherwood as deputy chairman in 1989. Leatherwood was appointed chairman in 1991 following Perrin's resignation. Reeves was appointed deputy chairman early in 1992. We are indebted to Bill Perrin for his central role in shaping the CSG, compiling the group's first Action Plan, and taking an advisory role in the preparation of this new version. From the start and throughout, Bob Brownell has taken a special interest in CSG activities, and he has made important contributions to this Action Plan. The compilers could not have completed this project without the major financial support of Greenpeace Environmental Trust, the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS), and the Peter Scott lUCN/SSC Action Plan Fund. Partial support for printing of the Action Plan came from the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission. It should also be noted that Greenpeace, WDCS, the U.S. Department of State, and the United Nations Environment Programme contributed substantially to several projects identified as critical in the first Action Plan. Additional funding for CSG projects was provided by the following organizations and individuals: Blum-Kovler Foundation, Center for Marine Conservation (CMC), Chicago Zoological Society, Earthtrust, Earth Island Institute, Maijorie Y. Crosby, Abbie Wells, Willace D. Hill, Paul and Billie Karcher, U.S. Marine Mammal Commission, U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), American Cetacean Society, Cetacean Society Acknowledgements VI International, Oceans Unlimited, Peter Scott lUCN/SSC Action Plan Fund, and John R. Twiss, Jr. Like other lUCN/SSC specialist groups, the CSG relies on host organizations for office space and basic administrative support. Both were provided by the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service through its Southwest Fisheries Science Center, La Jolla, California, through August 1991 and again from January 1993 through February 1994, and by the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas, from September 1991 through 1992. Effective February 15, 1994, the office was relocated to Hong Kong, where it is sponsored by the Ocean Park Conservation Foundation. The Chairman's address is: Stephen Leatherwood, lUCN/SSC Cetacean Specialist Group, Ocean Park Conservation Foundation, Aberdeen, Hong Kong, Phone (+852) 873-8650, Fax (852) 553-8302. The Deputy Chairman's address is: Randall Reeves, lUCN/SSC Cetacean Specialist Group, 27 Chandler Lane, Hudson, Quebec, Canada JOP IHO, Phone or Fax (+1) 514-458- 7383. Additional administrative support was provided by Greenpeace Environmental Trust, the U.S. State Department, the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, and the U.S. Marine Mammal Commission. Since 1990, CSG funds have been administered gratis by CMC in Washington, D.C. We are grateful for the many contributions made to the routine business of the CSG and to this Action Plan by other CSG members. Their willingness to devote time and thought to our requests for advice and assistance testifies to their individual commitments to cetacean conservation. We also thank Tim Sullivan, Simon Stuart, and Mariano Gimenez-Dixon for providing various other kinds of advice and support.
The challenge before the Cetacean Specialist Group (CSG), and indeed before most of the lUCN/SSC specialist groups, was well defined by Katona (1991:298) in his discussion of planning for the recovery of humpback whale populations: "... management of the humpback whale or of any endangered species cannot be regarded as a task to complete. While there may be some actions that need to be accomplished only once, for example designating certain locations as sanctuaries for the species, other actions may need to be overseen or repeated forever, or until a decision is taken that the species should not be protected." It can still be stated that humans have not caused the extinction of any cetacean species. However, this is a tentative and somewhat hollow claim. Surviving wild populations of at least four species (baiji, vaquita, northern right whale, and bhulan) are in the low to mid-hundreds, and in the cases of the baiji and the vaquita, a declining trend is thought to be continuing. Some populations of other species have been exterminated or very greatly depleted, e.g. the Atlantic gray whale (extinct) and the eastern spinner dolphin in the Pacific (reduced to about a third of its population size in the 1950s). Conservationists and scientists campaigned for many years to bring the direct exploitation of large cetaceans under effective control, largely by changing the policies of the International Whaling Commission (IWC). Right whales and bowheads have been protected from commercial whaling under international law since 1935 (although with some well-known violations; e.g. Best 1988), gray whales since 1946 (Reeves 1984), humpbacks and blue whales since the mid 1960s (Best 1993). The worldwide moratorium on commercial whaling which took effect beginning in 1986 can be seen as the most recent in a long line of protective measures. There is now reason for cautious optimism about the status and future of certain populations of large whales (cf. Best 1993). For example, right whales in the South Atlantic (Best 1990, Payne et al. 1990), humpbacks off Australia (Paterson and Paterson 1989, Bannister et al. 1991), gray whales in the eastern North Pacific (Buckland et al. 1993c), and possibly blue whales in the eastern North Pacific (Barlow 1994) have shown signs of steady recovery under protection. Some stocks, however, such as those of right whales in the North Pacific (Scarff 1991), bowheads in the North Atlantic (Zeh et al. 1993), and blue and fin whales in the Southern Ocean (Butterworth and De Decker 1990, Borchers et al. 1991), apparently remain dangerously small, and there is no reason to be complacent about their future. The lack of adequate monitoring makes Introduction VII it impossible to investigate trends in these stocks. In the 1980s and early 1990s, direct exploitation has not posed an immediate threat to most endangered whale populations, but accidental mortality in fishing gear, reduction of prey due to competitive harvesting by humans, and pollution have emerged as potential threats that give cause for continuing concern. There is still much interest in the conservation of the great whales. The high public profile of commercial whaling ensures that governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and inter-governmental organizations (IGOs) will continue to apply pressure on the whaling nations to eliminate whaling altogether or to keep harvests within sustainable limits and protect at least some populations. The CSG membership has always been well represented in the IWC's Scientific Committee as well as in many of the relevant governmental agencies, NGOs, and other IGOs. Many members therefore have been involved directly in the work of developing an effective regime for large-whale conservation. The first CSG Action Plan deliberately redirected the attentions and energies of conservationists from the commercially exploited great whales to the smaller cetaceans (also see Brownell et al. 1989), and the present Action Plan continues the emphasis on river dolphins and coastal populations of marine species. With the possible exception of the northern right whale, these groups encompass the most critically endangered species whose exceptional vulnerability is often tied to a geographically restricted range, a relatively narrow ecological niche, and a dependence on resources that are also used by humans. The survival of river dolphins depends on the health of major river systems in less developed countries. These dolphins are in direct competition with humans for the necessities of life: food and fresh water. Whether it is to control flooding, support irrigation, or produce electrical power, the impetus for dams, barrages, embankments, and other river modifications grows relentlessly. These structures fragment populations of dolphins and their prey and reduce the amount of suitable habitat available to them. Moreover, the drive toward economic development through industrialization, coupled with rapid growth in human populations, has meant that rivers must absorb ever-increasing amounts of waste products, while at the same time they are expected to produce larger and larger quantities of fish, crustaceans, and mollusks for human consumption. Although river dolphins in many areas enjoy religious, customary, or legal protection from hunting, they face many threats, for example from accidental fouling in fishing nets and hooks, collisions with powered
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Page 48 and 49: Figure 18. The face of a baiji, Chi
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igorous population estimates is ava
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The Chinese government is following
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of this project is to document the
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Figure 25. A young boto, killed in
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less porpoise that are most at risk
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Figure 27. Commerson s dolphins hav
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Figure 29. The franciscana is the o
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Reyes 1990, in press). The species
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as to whether the drive fishery, ma
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Figure 35A. Figure 35B. Mediterrane
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and finless porpoise) have been eli
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implementation of this project (see
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and G.P. Donovan (eds.). Cetaceans
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Norwegian waters. Rep. Int. What. C
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net fishery preliminary results. IC
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and fisheries. George Allen & Unwin
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SC/40/SM 9. Miyazaki, N. 1983. Catc
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Bolivian (Inia boliviensis d'Orbign
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1:167-176. Silas, E.G., Parameswara
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AJex Aguilar Anne Collet Spain Fran
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The lUCN General Assembly adopted t
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accepted some parts of the Recommen
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lUCN/SSC Action Plans for the Conse
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