2012. Review of Significant Trade - Cites

Tursiops aduncus
In response to the AC24 recommendation to set a cautious export quota in August 2008, the
Cabinet of the Solomon Islands Government gave its endorsement to halve the annual
export quota of T. aduncus from 100 to 50 animals and also endorsed that this quota be
continuously reviewed (AC25 Doc. 9.5; Horokou, in litt. to CITES Secretariat, 2009).
Oremus et al. (2011) reported that the Government of Solomon Islands permits up to
40 dolphins to be exported per year for display purposes, and that to date, exports had
only comprised the species T. aduncus.
A standard adopted by the Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission
(IWC) stated that one per cent of an abundance estimate represents a reasonable and
precautionary threshold beyond which there should be concern about sustainability of
anthropogenic removals (IWC, 1996).
During discussion on trade in T. aduncus at a workshop held in Samoa in 2008 under the
auspices of the IUCN Cetacean Specialist group (Reeves & Brownell, 2009), it was concluded
that if a 1-2 per cent threshold were applied to T. aduncus, then intended annual level of
removal by the Solomon Islands government at that time (of around 100 T. aduncus) was
unlikely to be sustainable given the state of knowledge of Indo‐Pacific bottlenose dolphins
in the country, as the population would need to be in the region of 5000-10 000 individuals
(Reeves & Brownell, 2009).
Management: The Government of the Solomon Islands suspended exports of wildlife in
2006 to allow for the development of regulations necessary under the Environment Act
(1998) and Wildlife Protection and Management Act (1998) (Ministry of Environment
Conservation and Meteorology, 2008), which was then lifted in 2007 (Parsons et al., 2010).
According to the Solomon Islands Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources (in litt. to
CITES Secretariat, 2009), capture of dolphins requires a license which is restricted to
traditional dolphin harvesting communities, and it is prohibited in certain geographical
areas at certain times of the year under the Provincial Legislation and Customary (Tribal)
Regulation. Export of live dolphins is allowed only for certain purposes: (a) scientific and
research purposes, (b) public display and education, (c) for introduction of new genetic
material, and (d) conservation, captive and breeding in captivity programs (Solomon Islands
Ministry of Fisheries and Marine Resources, 2007).
Reeves and Horokou (2008) reported that there were no management measures in place to
protect the species in the Solomon Islands, nor was there any monitoring of the harvest.
However, the Scientific Authority of the Solomon Islands considered this document to be
inaccurate, as the information had not been peer reviewed (Ministry of Fisheries and Marine
Resources, 2009b).
Some progress on establishing management measures for the species appears to have been
made, particularly following previous Animals Committee discussions on T. aduncus in
the Solomon Islands. The Solomon Islands signed the Memorandum of Understanding
(MoU) for the Conservation of Cetaceans and their Habitats in the Pacific Islands Region
under the Convention for the Conservation of Migratory Species in 2007 1 , and in doing so,
agreed to endeavor to improve national conservation, reduce threats and undertake research
and monitoring of cetaceans. An assessment of dolphin removals is a high priority of the
1 http://www.pacificcetaceans.org/membership.php Accessed 9/11/11
7