Dolphins, Whales and Porpoises: 2002-2010 Conservation - IUCN

Chapter 6
Recommended Conservation Action
The Cetacean Specialist Group has traditionally focused on
developing and promoting research projects. Our chosen
role has been to identify and characterize conservation problems,
leaving advocacy groups, intergovernmental bodies,
and government authorities with the tasks of developing,
promoting, and implementing appropriate conservation
measures. However, over the past 15 years it has become
clear that, in certain cases, existing scientific evidence is
sufficient to justify, or indeed require, immediate action.
The CSG therefore decided to include here a number of
recommendations that go beyond research. In these and
other instances, we recognize that more and better data are
desired, but in the meantime, there is a danger that the call
for more science will allow authorities and decision-makers
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to postpone difficult choices that could be decisive in preventing
extirpations or extinctions.
None of the recommendations included in this chapter are
entirely new; most have been stated in other fora. Members
of the CSG participate routinely in a wide variety of advisory
bodies, research institutions, and, occasionally, management
agencies. Therefore, the membership has often
contributed, albeit in other contexts, to the formulation of
management advice. The recommendations included here
are far from exhaustive. It represents little more than a first
step in calling attention to a sample of the most pressing
actions needed to conserve cetacean species and populations
(Figure 34).
Figure 34. The Northern Hemisphere right whales (Eubalaena glacialis in the North Atlantic, E. japonica in the North Pacific)
were nearly exterminated by commercial whaling, and they are the most endangered species of large whales. Although fully
protected from whaling, their existence is now threatened by ship strikes and entanglement in fishing gear. Also, the
demographic and genetic effects of small population size may be inhibiting their recovery. This breaching right whale is one
of about 300–350 that migrate along the east coast of North America, from wintering areas between Cape Cod and Florida to
summer feeding grounds off south-eastern Canada and across the rim of the North Atlantic to Iceland and, at least
occasionally, Norway. Photo: Stephanie Martin, courtesy of New England Aquarium.