WDCS Blog - From the Front Line

Epilogue: Farewell Funchal.

Funchal Harbour

Well, the IWC 61 delegates have now left all the meeting halls that we came to know so well. All the small group meetings and co-ordinations have finally ended. (Many European delegates are probably lonely now without someone to coordinate with and wondering how to make decisions outside a co-ordination). The emails have slowed and the Skype alerts have stopped popping up on our screens; no one is asking any more ‘what exactly happen there’, can you explain what Hogarth actually meant’ or things like that. Planes are carrying people back around the world to some 85 different countries, although it should be noted that a fair few are also staying on for a least a little holiday. 

So it is that Team WDCS leaves Madeira but you cannot live in a place for a month without forming some opinion of it. This is true even if you are only venturing our occasionally from the IWC meeting fortress (an enchanted place that emerges somewhere on the planet every year, then goes about its arcane business before disappearing again some weeks later). But I don’t think we can claim to have an opinion of Madeira in total, only Funchal its capital; a warm city of leafy avenues and flowery parks. A place where orange tiled roofs dominate and tourists wade slowly through the warm air and falling petals as if locked in a timeless dream. We liked the city. It was safe and fun and, once we have discovered that the food in the supermarket was a quarter (or less) what it cost in the cafes and restaurants, we were more than happy.  

However, crossing the city, bordering it and linking city to airport and town to town are a series of mighty carriageways and something that visitors of just a few years ago would not have recognized. European money has changed the face of Funchal; tunnels pump motorcars through mountains and bridges vault them swiftly over ravines; and the pace of life has speeded up. The big and beautiful botanical garden which hangs on a hillside two cable car journeys from the shore is now complete with a background of less than beautiful traffic noise.

Blandy’s Story Centre Museum in the old town, shows us a more gentile time. The old Pathe Pictorial reels that play here in constant loops show us the period when mass tourism had just started but was constrained because the tourists could only arrive by boat or, for one short glorious period, an air-boat that set off from Southampton and landed in Funchal Bay. (The airport did not arrive until 1964, with its runway extended out over the sea on pillars in 2000.)

Tourists in the 30s, 40s and 50, enjoyed simple pleasures: the warm air and sea breezes (a good combination for chest ailments); a certain quality of service; refreshing walks in the mountains; and being carried around in hammocks by strapping young men. We are not sure when the ‘Funchal slalom’ arrived – the fast slide down a cobbled track in a wicker armchair on rails (with two gondoliers in attendance) – but it seems to have long been popular and is still going strong.

Also still going strong is a certain elegance and remoteness from the faster moving 21^st centaury. Waiters – even in the cheaper places – still dress smartly for their role and take care to arrange their tables just-so. Indeed many tourists are surprised when their own haphazard rearrangements of tables (or even just the condiments) are swiftly returned to their correct (starting) position by a stern waiter.

Madeira has no beaches. Hence lidos have been built in various parts of town, where escalators take lazy tourists down to concrete platforms and pools at sea-level. The old films at Blandy’s museum show ladies in the 50s being super-excited about these opportunities to toast themselves in the sun and parading out to sea in remarkably pointy bikinis (have ladies changed shape in recent decades – I think we should be told).

However, the ancient elegance and simple pleasures of Funchal and Madeira may be threatened. In combination with the newly busy roads comes talk of trying to attract a new type of tourists – the young! Attractions could include further night clubs and white-water rafting. Most significantly comes the notion of making artificial beaches.

You have to speculate that the reason why Madeira is unlike so many other warm European sea-side resorts and not buried under piles of youngsters doing a good impression of the US frantic and booze-fuelled spring break phenomena, is because it has, so far, no beaches where the young can sleep-it all off. No beaches means no beach-parties, surfing or sleep-overs in the warm sand.

Perhaps the Madeiran authorities need to think about this a little before the developments evolve themselves. The island has a certain old-worldy charm and is certainly dominated by the TOSAs (Tourists of a Senior Age), but perhaps this is not a bad thing. They need somewhere to go.

Development may also be an issue for the whales and dolphins that currently come so close to shore. For the sperm whales this is their breeding grounds, for the Bryde’s part of their range and the sharp topography of the islands makes the waters highly productive. These waters, like those around the Azores seem to be rearing and feeding grounds.

And, as acknowledged during the IWC plenary, whale watching has been developing slowly here and can generally be welcomed. It seems to be mainly well conducted, but here, as in other seaside resorts, there is certainly scope for ‘too much of a good thing’. The Old TOSAs don’t like fast moving boats too much, but the youngsters do. More and faster leisure boats, including whale watching craft, may come into play. In fact this is already happening and one afternoon we witnessed the domination of the main shore area by the swift zig-zagging of a small group of seemingly jet-propelled wet bikes. Sometimes know by the trade name ‘jet skis’ these motor bikes of  sea can reach speeds of up to 80 miles per hour. They can also corral and chase dolphins, as has been shown elsewhere.

St Maria - under sail.

So Funchal/Madeira – we thank you for being a benign and enjoyable place to stay but urge you to take care in your development. Cherish the TOSAs (we all get there eventually) and please keep those pretty little spotted dolphin calves safe.

Finally a list

We thought it might be of interest to readers here just to mention some of the good and bad things that we have enjoyed or not enjoyed during our stay.

Many of us have enjoyed:

Whale (and dolphin watching), although some of us were a little concerned at times that the boats came close to pursuing the animals

Being propelled down a steep hill in a wicker arm chair pushed over cobbles on skies

The local fortified wine and fine cakes (both of which are orders of magnitude cheaper in the supermarkets than in the restaurants)

Simply staring out to sea hoping a whale or dolphin will come by (and sometimes they did)

The colourful lizards (especially the big green ones); the drifts of pigeons over the roof tops and the singing blackbirds.

The extraordinary and huge firework displays every Saturday night (a good half an hour of pyrotechnical splendour with a different national theme – Italy being better than Germany this year)

The company of many like-minded friends.

Saturday Fireworks at Funchal

A few of us have enjoyed:

High tea at Reid’s Hotel (the oldest on the island) with a wonderful view over the main bay of Funchal

The local delicacy of Scabbard fish with banana - a delicate and unique conbition of flavours that, despite initial fears, really seems to work. (However none of us enjoyed meeting the scabbard fish – a true monster of the deep with huge eyes and a mass of oddly protruding teeth. Indeed the animal is so ugly that reproduction is only possible in the deep sea where they cannot see each other.)

Seeing the whale watching galleon (a replica of the Santa Maria which first brought Columbus to the island) coming around the point under full sails, briefly transporting us to another time. 

Spotted dolphins in Funchal Bay

Many of us did not enjoy:

Getting sunburnt (especially around the ears)

The mosquitoes (not numerous but potent killers of sleep and biters of fingers and toes)

Being propelled down a steep hill in a wicker arm chair pushed over cobbles on skies

One of us really did not like:

Having the ancient translation headset earphones disintegrate covering us (and the ears again) in a sooty-gluey substance that cannot be removed from shirts

And goodbye.

Some of your may be wondering what this resolution agreed during the meeting says.

It was submitted by USA and Norway jointly and has as a title: Consensus Resolution on Climate Change and Cetaceans.

In its preamble the resolution recognises the work done by the IWC before on environmental threats and welcomes the report of the climate change workshop held in Costa Rica in February 2009 and the IWC’s workshop on cetaceans and climate change held the same month.

Then it says:

“Concerned that, as stated by the IWC SC workshop “climate-related changes will impact negatively on at least some species and populations, especially those with small and/or restricted ranges, those already impacted by other human activities and those in environments subject to most rapid change… For these species there is a real potential for elevated risks of extinction.

The Commission therefore:

ENDORSES the outcome of the climate change workshop and associated recommendations of the Scientific Committee given in IWC/61/Rep 1, including the need to expand the current international multi-disciplinary efforts and collaborative work with other relevant bodies;

REQUESTS Contracting Governments to incorporate climate change considerations into existing conservation and management plans;

DIRECTS the Scientific Committee on studies of climate change and the impacts of other environmental changes on cetaceans, as appropriate;

CALLS on Contracting Governments, IGOs and NGOs to support the expansion of this important work;

REQUSTS the Secretariat to forward this resolution and the workshop report (SC/61/Rep 4) to relevant bodies and meetings including inter alia the World Climate Conference, the UNFCCC and the IPCC in time for upcoming meetings; and

APPEALS to all Contracting Governments to take urgent actions to reduce the rate and extent of climate change.

It seems the outgoing IWC Chairman and President Bush appointee to lead the USA's defense of its whaling interests, sorry whales, - Dr William Hogarth, cannot resist having once last go at trying to get a resumption of commercial whaling.

In speaking to the BBC’s Richard Black at the end of the IWC meeting in Portugal he is quoted as saying;

"I'll probably get in trouble for making this statement, but I am probably convinced right now that there would be less whales killed if we didn't have the commercial moratorium," he told BBC News immediately after the meeting ended.
   
His argument is that Japan's hunts, conducted under a clause in the whaling convention that gives any country the right to hunt as many whales as it wants for scientific research, are essentially unregulated.

His words of course serve to encourage the existing whalers who are hanging on by their fingertips, and has been widely reported in Iceland, for example, as a reason to keep going with their diminishing industrial whaling. By the way Iceland adds, whilst it agrees that the moratorium should fall its never going to agree to Dr. Hogarth’s counter points of no trade, goodness no.

Despite what Dr Hogarth says, the moratorium has meant that whales have been given a chance. The whaling industry has been held at bay, with Japanese commercial companies giving in the towel and handing it all over to the government to run and the one coastal whaling company left only able to do so because of subsidies and ‘scientific whaling’ contracts - whilst they have had to resort to selling whale meat for pet food to make ends meet.

Norway has had a disastrous year, having to end its hunt because of a lack of demand, and Iceland's Hvalur and its associated companies are loosing fish market share in Europe as I write. And, for the first time the international community is beginning to wake up to the fact that not every claim in the name of an Inuit cause for more whales is as legitimate as another.

No, I think the moratorium has been a good thing and it will mean an eventual end to this practice. It's time for the IWC to turn to those peoples that have at least a legitimate claim for hunting whales, and the USA and others need be able to tell the difference between these claims. Its time the IWC worked out what it means when it says its supports Aboriginal Subsistence Whaling (ASW). A few definitions might be a good start.

Leadership in such a fora as the IWC does not mean giving into everyone, it means deciding what is right for the 21st Century and fighting for those principles. So maybe its time for the moratorium to go, but only to be replaced a full ban on commercial whaling once and for all - and maybe its time for the USA to take up that challenge, not quietly but openly and with conviction.

There was a passing of the torch at the IWC this year in the US delegation. Now the new guard has to shake off the past few years and rise to the challenge of helping to end commercial once and for all

‘Exposing your Smalls in public’.

So where were we – ah yes in the gloom of a vast meeting chamber of a big international meeting room where ‘nothing is decided until everything is decided’ … or possibly just ‘nothing is decided’.

As we dream of freedom we are still reviewing that part of the Scientific Committee report that deals with the smaller cetaceans – a disputed part of the IWC canon of work because the pro-whaling nations do not accept that that IWC has competency for these species.

Finland now takes the floor and rather bravely highlights the Japanese catches of, for example and in particular, Dall’s porpoises. We noted last year, says the commissioner, new abundance estimates which went into unsurveyed areas and then Japan said it was looking at new management approaches such as potential biological removals to manage these takes. He adds that the scientific committee has advised that catch limits should be much lower. He asks Japan what progress has been made.

However, before they can answer, St Vincent and the Grenadines predictably questions the authority of the IWC to look at small cetaceans.

Italy chimes in with the notion that the work of the Scientific Committee’s sub committee on smalls is paramount and allows us to achieve co-ordinations. [I think we go that right.]

The UK shyly (and looking a little battered today) thanks the Scientific Committee chair for its work on smalls and notes that it maintains its concerns on Dall’s porpoises.

Ireland then makes a long, detailed, bold and wise intervention on smalls. The gist of which is to encourage this work to continue and highlight concerns on the boto (the Amazon river dolphin) and note that they too are concerned about the Dall’s porpoises. And they thank Australia for its generous contribution to the Small Cetaceans fund [one of the few thanks that Australia gets this meeting].

Japan now takes the floor and mildly dismisses the Commission - we will talk about this in the ongoing IWC negotiations; if you need more information please speak to us OUTSIDE of the IWC says the Alternate Commissioner. [There could be a long queue in the coffee break if there is one.]

France is concerned about the situation of the vaquita.

Korea comments that small cetaceans are outside the competence of IWC and notes that some 340 finless porpoises caught in a fishery in the Korean Straights are not a directed take. They are undertaking research on this.

Luxembourg very elegantly congratulates the SC on its excellent work on small cetaceans. Every year we speak about Dall’s and we must take measures to address this he adds in French.


Mexico loses his mind

Mexico suddenly breaks into the debate. Sorry to speak again says the distinguished Commissioner. He is having technical difficulties. ‘We need electricity to run the computer, and I don’t have any. Since I don’t have memory any more I need my computer to make interventions but somehow he recalls something to say and he thanks the US for their support for the vaquita.

St Vincent and the Grenadines is very concerned about the distinguished commissioner from Ireland commenting on management. This matter should not be part of the group.

The Chairman himself now mildly intervenes and reminds the Commission that this is one of the 33 issues which are part of the ongoing IWC negotiation on the future of the IWC and in doing so encourages the Parties to move on.

But Carmen the Spanish Comissioner still takes to the floor – it is important for this work [on smalls] to continue she comments.

[And so ‘smalls’ is finished for this year and many fine recommendations in the report of the Scientific Committee have been agreed.]

We move on to the Scientific Committee report on its views on its future. Arne Bjorge resplendent in silver beard and red bow tie tells us about the new Scientific Committee handbook [perhaps this will explain to us the differing roles of the Head of Science and the Chair of Science].

[The US is kneeling at the feet of the UK towards the back of the room (is this a coordination or more lobbying?). The US Commissioner nominate gustures wildly and points at a piece of green paper that can only be the Greenland proposal.]

There are no comments on the handbook or related matters and Arne ploughs on. We touch on surveys in Antarctica and thanks to Japan for supporting the SOWER surveys.

The appointment of a new Vice Chair for the Scientific Committee is noted: Kitikarto of Japan has been appointed.

The next chair of the SC is Debbie Palka of US as Arne, having served a record 4 years is retiring. He gets a round of applause and fiddles with his bowtie and smiles from the big screens.

The Australian Scientist notes that Arne got more excited as he moved to the end of his delivery of the Scientific Committee speech. He notes that Arne has been an excellent chair including taking on chairing of very difficult sub committees personally.

Mexico also thanks Arne; as does the US. Their acting Commissioner notes Arne was once his deputy. He says I don’t think people realise how difficult this role is; buy him a cool drink.

Then we bounce back to the report of the Conservation Committee reports on Ship Strikes: Belgium notes the new database.

UK very eloquently congratulates the Conservation Committee for its work and praises Australia for its major contribution to the work of the Conservation Committee [another of those rare thank-yous to our antipodean friends] and reports back to the plenary on the small small cetacean workshop on climate change which they have been trying to fund raise for in the background of the great humpback non-debate.

They note that thanks to the generosity of Australia, WWF, Austria, the US and WDCS there is enough in the kitty for the small small workshop to happen – although we have not quite reached to total sought, so further contributions are welcomed.

Luxembourg associates with the UK and agrees that the small small workshop is important and wishes it well.

Under the agenda item ‘catches from non-member nations’, nothing happens. [Not a word about the expanded bowhead hunt in the ex-IWC member nation Canada.]

Similarly the report of the infractions committee which notes the accidental [and illegal] take of a bowhead calf by the Alaskan Inupiat people passes without comment.

[It is late. It is hot. Commissioners are tired and the Chair is keen to finish.]


Achieving the Practical Installation of NGOs


The report from the IWC’s Finance and Admin Committee passes with little comment. We note that Commissioners are not keen to have their names and email addresses on the IWC website in case anyone contacts them [or spams them as one NGO did last year by accident]. No, Commissioners would much rather have small private meetings and not be disturbed by the rest of the world.

There is some discussion about trying to make the IWC carbon neutral. Fat chance if we keep having large international meetings.

St Vincent and the Grenadines is concerned about the fees that have to be paid to allow it to attend the IWC and blesses the meeting with a long list of countries that pay less than it does.
NGO fees for attendance are noted (many hundred of pounds for the use of an uncomfortable chair).

Australia then takes to the floor to explain that the 1.5 million Australian dollars that it is donating to the IWC will be donated via the existing IWC payments structure.

[By the way we are now writing this at midday in WDCS HQ on Friday and the Children are still singing outside – four hours of singing and cheering. What energy!]

We move to the issue of who will replace Bill Hogarth as the new Chairman of the IWC. Sir Geoffrey of New Zealand is waving his flag with enthusiasm. He booms out that he would like to nominate Christain Maquiera of Chile. And Anthony Liverpool of Antigua of Barbuda is made Vice Chair. There is a heady outbreak of applause.

Portugal becomes chair of the IWC Advisory Committee, another group that meets in private, but we are pleased with his appointment as the Portuguese Commissioner is kind and wise.

The Chair of the Finance and Administration Committee is now Australia. [Might this explain why they were so quiet this year – they needed to gain support for this position? We can only widely speculate and peak through the cracks behind closed doors.]

The Chilean Commissioner Snr Maquiera now speaks to thank the Commission for the great honour it does him in making him the Chairman. He says that this is in recognition of the hard work and trajectory of the Latin Countries here. He thanks the outgoing chair for his leadership.

[more applause]

Maquiera does not support the status quo. He notes that 2010 is the UN Year of Biodiversity. He says he intends to take a hard look at the IWC and how it works.

Japan [the outgoing vice chair of the Commission] reminds us of normalization [which we have heard surprisingly little of at this meeting] and the [infamous] St Kits and Nevis declaration which dedicated us to normalizing the IWC [and made various ridiculous statesments about food security, but he does not say this.] He refers to Sir Geoffrey’s earlier mountaineering metaphors [will someone please explain to the scribe sometime whether Sir G is playing IWC bingo ; trying to mention climbing mountains as often as possible in international meetings] and the Japanese Commissioner recalling the bottle of Mount Difficulty wine offered by New Zealand, now offers himself Mount Compromise.

We move through a few administrative matters and then suddenly the US Commissioner nominate pops up to ask if we could decide here and now if the timing of the Scientific Committee relative to the Commission can be changed before the next annual meeting.

This is an issue because the Committee meets just before the Commission and this gives very little time for anyone to read and understand [and in some cases translate] its many pages of findings before they are discussed.

Up on the stage the outgoing chair of the commission and the Secretary turn bleary eyes towards the US Commissioner Nominate. No they say. We have to come back to this.

We move to the issue of where the IWC will meet next. Morocco [sadly without the use of a power point – we always enjoy the welcome videos] notes that it is only 700 miles from Madeira and offers to host.

But before this can be accepted France starts to ask if the NGOs could perhaps get better value for money for their large fee but Chairman Bill swivels around in his chair to stop this line of discussion until we have agreed our next venue.

Guinea and some others speak up to support Morocco. [WDCS dreams of a cool tent in an oasis at the base of some huge hill with the meeting venue on top of it.]

It is agreed.

Madam Secretary then tells us that she is sorry, but that she has worked out what the schedule might be for next years’ meeting as we are finishing so swiftly [to avoid any unnecessary discussion here of matters of controversy or substance – but she does not say this]. But the plan for next year will look much like this one’s.

France finally gets to make his NGO-related comment. He says that we need to think about their ‘practical installation’. They should be given

i. [proper] speaking rights; and
ii. tables

Many NGOs at the back of the room balanced on uncomfortable chairs with laptops cooking their genitals, wrapped in cables and tripping over each others’ bags gently clap. As do some delegates under the table until they are admonished by their Commissioners.

[The NGOs pay £500 for their first delegates and then £250 more for each other person coming as part of their delegation. And for this they get a badge and the aforementioned chair, but no reliable source of electricity and no table. In the bad old days they rarely got access to water either but that seems to have improved and at this meeting they get wonderful pastries, cakes, fruit and occasional excursions into the sunshine too.]

No one associates with France and we move on.

We move to the final actions….

Portugal says good bye to us all. The US thanks him. Many people thank Chairman Bill.

He makes his concluding remarks – this includes thanking the US whale team including Deputy Doug. He refers back to the Russian intervention on small groups in smoking pools and then ‘takes us on a train’ ride that has taken him from Cambridge to London and on to Madeira…

Then [quite remarkably] he expresses his opposition to the Commission ‘holding natives hostage’. [Is this a reference to Greenland or the fact that Japan can block the quota for the US native hunters. Or perhaps both.]

Then he thanks Nicky Grandy [Madam Secretary] and says we must hitch up our goats and get going.

He receives a standing ovation. And the meeting is closed.

The hoards of secretariat staff who have been waiting anxiously in the wings now invade the magma chamber [as they do at the end of every commission meeting] to collect the flags of all the nations before they can be nicked.

And so IWC 61 ends with a whimper not a bang. The fate of humpbacks in Greenland is not resolved but, frankly, looks bleak.

Many readers will have noticed that WDCS has strongly opposed this addition to the Greenland hunts and we have received much criticism for this position (as have certain delegations) on the grounds of opposing the legitimate needs of native peoples. This is not correct. WDCS does not oppose properly regulated ASW that meets a genuine nutritional subsistence need of indigenous people and conforms to the requirements of the IWC. There are many problems with this humpback proposal and Greenland’s whaling in general that we will not detail here, but by deferring a decision at this meeting and transferring the politics a few months ahead to another meeting, the IWC is making itself look even more dysfunctional.

More positively as we close the web blog (and pictures are still to follow) as ever the scribe thanks the editor; and this year Team WSPA who helped keep the blog on line [thank you Jo] and Team WDCS amused.

The biggest thank you this year goes to the UK delegation who, under difficult circumstances, magnificently championed the humpbacks and withstood huge (inappropriate) pressure from many countries that should have been their allies.

We thank all our colleagues in our NGO sister organizations all over the world, for all their efforts, friendship and solidarity. It was wonderful to see the return of some old friends this year, but we greatly missed a couple of beloved members of the usual WDCS team. But you were with us in spirit and always on the end of a skype-chat. Kate, you are a marvel. Please now get some sleep! And finally, D.J – friend, coordinator, tour-operator and saver of local dogs - you rock!

Courages mes braves and good bye.