TROUBLED WATERS - Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society

methods can be improved where there is a will and where the situation allows for this. Ifimprovements cannot be adequately demonstrated, then clearly it remains legitimate to stop huntingactivity in the particular area in question. Public views about the treatment of animals are subject tochange over time. In some cases, society may conclude that the steps, which can be taken to improvetechniques for killing animals, are not likely to create methods that could ever be described as bestpractice. Harpooning as a method for catching and killing cetaceans is not likely to be susceptible toradical improvements in effectiveness. It seems likely, therefore, that society worldwide will identifythis practice as unacceptable, and move toward its prevention by robust global agreement.ConclusionThe enforcement of any regulation of welfare standards during the slaughter of cetaceans on the highseas is likely to be problematic, particularly without independent inspection and review. However, itmight be possible to instigate measures, which could, to a certain extent, improve the efficiency ofcurrent whaling operations. Such measures could include:• operating closed seasons;• ensuring independent data collection;• ensuring weapons are sufficiently powerful to cause immediate loss of consciousness or death andare specifically adapted for the species taken;• enforcing struck and lost caps for all hunts;• limiting the pursuit time for individual animals; and• improving methods for determining the onset of death and irreversible insensibility.However, such measures are unlikely to overcome completely the serious animal welfare problemsinherent in whaling or bring whaling up to the standards of humane slaughter required for otherspecies killed commercially for food. These measures could only represent absolute minimumrequirements during a phase-out period. Mitigation measures could also include a mechanism forqualitatively assessing whaling in terms of injury caused, including assessing behavioural changesduring pursuit, capture and slaughter, and providing an assessment of potential suffering, rather thanfocussing exclusively on TTD.WHALING & WELFARE131Until improved criteria for determining death in cetaceans are developed, data on TTD and IDR arenot likely to be credible and should not be considered as scientifically reliable, but rather asapproximations, which may significantly underestimate the suffering incurred for some individualanimals. Time to death further, provides no means of determining the extent of injury caused.This review of the scientific and practical evidence on whaling and welfare reveals that whalingmethods have inherent severe welfare problems. The low welfare potential of whaling is greatlyinfluenced by the many variables involved in all whaling operations. These include; gunner accuracy,power of the primary and secondary weapons used, prevailing weather conditions, proximity andorientation of the vessel to the whale, species specific factors (i.e. how well the weapon used has beenadapted for the characteristics of the species taken) and individual characteristics of the cetacean,such as age, sex, and health, which all influence both the pursuit and the slaughter.Many cetacean species are migratory, or occur across international boundaries. Therefore, no singlegovernment may claim to have absolute sovereignty over these migratory or transient species. Thereare robust legal precedents for the protection of cetaceans under domestic legislation, emerging