TROUBLED WATERS - Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society

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A REVIEW OF THE WELFARE IMPLICATIONS OF MODERN WHALING ACTIVITIES
7 The small cetacean dimension
Jennifer Lonsdale, Director, Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA), 62-63 Upper Street,
London, UK.
Every year it is estimated that hundreds of thousands of small whales, dolphins and porpoises (small
cetaceans) are killed around the globe as a result of human activities, including hunting and
incidental capture in fishing nets. Many small communities in developing countries target small
cetaceans as a source of food and these hunts often occur outside the regulation of their national
governments. Aboriginal communities in the High Arctic for example hunt narwhals, beluga whales
and other small cetaceans for subsistence purposes, and their products are sometimes traded, while
hunts for commercial purposes are conducted in several developed countries including Japan.
Whilst recognising that certain human communities may be nutritionally dependent on hunting,
including hunting cetaceans, and that for others there can be economic gains from such activities,
this is a complex issue. A full discussion of the pros and cons of such activities is outside the scope of
this chapter but it is, nevertheless, important that they are considered within an animal welfare
context to prevent unnecessary cruelty or suffering and that is the focus here.
This chapter considers the history of small cetacean management by the IWC, taking the hunts in
Japan and the Faroe Islands as case studies of killing methods used. It does not consider management
or conservation measures for small cetaceans undertaken by other agreements, such as the Bern
Convention (for details see chapter 14).
The ICRW and small cetaceans
Small cetaceans have long been a cause of dispute within the International Whaling Commission
(IWC), set up under the auspices of the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling
(ICRW). Although different opinions have been expressed, on balance there would appear to be no
juridical obstacle to the IWC taking action with respect to both large and small cetacean species.
Legal opinions have carefully scrutinised the text of the Convention, and the work of the
Commission, and have concluded that the IWC is competent to discuss, recommend action and
manage all cetacean species (Cameron 1990, Cameron 1991).
A list of species in the form of ‘The Annex of Nomenclature’ was appended to the Final Act of the
International Whaling Commission Conference 1946, which concluded the ICRW. It was not
intended to form part of the ICRW or to be an exhaustive list of the species to which the ICRW
applied. It was merely a list of translations of the common names used for the species regulated
because they were the most commercially valuable and, therefore, the most threatened by overexploitation
at that time (Cameron 1990). However, those countries opposed to small cetacean
regulation by the IWC, have repeatedly argued that the IWC should only address issues related to
species on this list.