Dolphins, Porpoises, and Whales - IUCN
Dolphins, Porpoises, and Whales - IUCN
Dolphins, Porpoises, and Whales - IUCN
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implementation of this project (see Reeves et al. 1993a,<br />
Reeves <strong>and</strong> Leatherwood 1994). Project 47 is viewed as<br />
an outgrowth of the work accomplished to date. The<br />
explicit need remains, however, for an authoritative set of<br />
guidelines to be recommended to national agencies, intergovernmental<br />
bodies, <strong>and</strong> international funding institutions<br />
presently engaged in or planning developments in<br />
major tropical river basins.<br />
This project should include the establishment of a<br />
position, preferably based in Washington, D.C., <strong>and</strong> possibly<br />
endowed by <strong>and</strong> housed within an existing NGO<br />
or IGO, to coordinate necessary activities related to river<br />
dolphins <strong>and</strong> development projects. The person in the<br />
fXJsition would be expected to (1) maintain a close liaison<br />
with officers in the World Bank <strong>and</strong> other aid agencies,<br />
NGOs, IGOs, <strong>and</strong> range-state governments, (2) develop<br />
<strong>and</strong> disseminate the guidelines described above, (3) organize<br />
meetings <strong>and</strong> campaigns, as appropriate, to ensure<br />
that the conservation of river dolphins is considered by<br />
planners <strong>and</strong> decision-makers, <strong>and</strong> (4) maintain an up-todate<br />
registry of development projects potentially affecting<br />
river dolphins.<br />
Project 51<br />
Conduct a symposium <strong>and</strong> workshop on the<br />
effects of chemical pollutants on marine mammals<br />
Evidence that chemical pollutants have negative effects on<br />
wild marine mammals has increased in recent years.<br />
70<br />
Organochlorines have been found to be associated with<br />
physiological alterations that lead to reproductive failure<br />
<strong>and</strong> with the occurrence of bone lesions in some pinnipeds<br />
(e.g. see Anonymous 1992b). Also, considering the ability<br />
of certain xenobiotic compounds to depress the immune<br />
systems of mammals, it has been postulated that pollutants<br />
were triggering factors in recent epizootics affecting<br />
seals <strong>and</strong> dolphins in highly polluted waters (Brouwer et<br />
al. 1989, Aguilar <strong>and</strong> Raga 1993, Kannan et al. 1993).<br />
However, the actual mechanisms involved in such<br />
processes, the threshold levels at which the effects should<br />
be expected in a wild population, <strong>and</strong> the range of these<br />
effects have not been established.<br />
Several recent initiatives have drawn together some of<br />
the results of studies on the effects of pollutants on<br />
cetaceans <strong>and</strong> the possible links between pollution <strong>and</strong> dieoffs.<br />
There is, nevertheless, an immediate need for a symposium<br />
<strong>and</strong> workshop to stimulate <strong>and</strong> guide further work<br />
in these areas. The main goals of such a meeting should be<br />
to: (a) make a comprehensive review of currently available<br />
information, (b) st<strong>and</strong>ardize experimental <strong>and</strong> analytical<br />
procedures, <strong>and</strong> (c) identify research priorities <strong>and</strong> develop<br />
proposals for action. The IWC-sponsored workshops on<br />
age determination (Rep. int. Whal. Commn, Spec. Iss. 3,<br />
1980) <strong>and</strong> reproduction (Rep. int. Whal. Commn, Spec.<br />
Iss. 6, 1984) should provide models for meeting organizers.<br />
Cooperation (<strong>and</strong> possibly joint sponsorship) with<br />
the SSC Seal Specialist Group should be considered.