Marine protected areas for whales, dolphins, and porpoises: a world ...

Ocean Sanctuaries, Marine Reserves or Parks? 17
Table 1.2 List of national cetacean sanctuaries: existing and proposed
Name of national sanctuary or MPA Status Location
American Samoa Whale and Turtle Sanctuary designated 2003 EEZ limit
Australian Whale Sanctuary designated 1980 EEZ limit of all claimed
waters
Bermuda Whale Sanctuary designated 2000 EEZ limit
Canary Islands Cetacean Marine Sanctuary proposed 1990s EEZ limit
Cook Islands Whale Sanctuary designated 2001 EEZ limit
Falkland Islands Marine Mammal Sanctuary designated 1992 EEZ limit
Fiji Whale Sanctuary designated 2003 EEZ limit
French Polynesia Marine Mammal Sanctuary designated 2002 EEZ limit
Guadeloupe Sanctuary, or Sanctuary of the South Antilles proposed 2003 undetermined (EEZ limit
of Guadeloupe?)
Indonesian Whale Sanctuary proposed 1982 EEZ limit
Irish Whale and Dolphin Sanctuary designated 1991 EEZ limit
Madeiran Marine Mammal Sanctuary designated 1986 EEZ limit
Mexican Whale Refuge designated 2002 EEZ limit
New Caledonia Whale Sanctuary in effect late 1990s EEZ limit
New Zealand Marine Mammal Sanctuary in effect 1978 EEZ limit
Niue Whale Sanctuary designated 2001 EEZ limit
Papua New Guinea Whale Sanctuary designated 2002 EEZ limit
Samoa Whale, Turtle and Shark Sanctuary announced 2002 EEZ limit
Seychelles Marine Mammal Sanctuary designated 1979 EEZ limit
Tongan Whale Sanctuary in effect 1989 EEZ limit
Tristan da Cunha Cetacean Sanctuary designated 2001 EEZ limit of Tristan da
Cunha and Gough I
Vanuatu Marine Mammal Sanctuary designated 2003 EEZ limit
Whale Natural Refuge designated 1990 EEZ limit of Ecuador
Another kind of cetacean sanctuary is the so-called ‘national sanctuary’,
which some countries and territories have designated within their national
waters, usually to the 200 nm (371 km) limit of the exclusive economic zone
(EEZ) (Table 1.2). Many of these have come as part of the multinational effort
to have the IWC turn the South Pacific into a whale sanctuary. The national
waters and EEZs are so large in the South Pacific, with its sprawling island
archipelagos, that, despite the IWC turning down the South Pacific Whale
Sanctuary, more than half of the South Pacific is now covered by national
cetacean sanctuaries (see Case Study 7, p188 and Box 5.9, p343).
Table 1.2 comprises a list of cetacean sanctuaries, both existing and
proposed, that cover the national waters of a country or overseas territory.
Since the late 1970s, 19 countries have designated their national waters as
cetacean sanctuaries of one kind or another, with four other proposals still
outstanding. More information about these national sanctuaries is provided