IWC 60 Day 1

Monday: The IWC is poised to open. The long hall is packed. Delegates are urgently greeting other delegates; Many ambassadors greeting many other ambassadors;Camera flashes are popping; Ministers, flanked by entourages swarm across the room seeking their delegations – snugly arrayed along parallel tables roughly in alphabetical order.

IWC Chairman, Bill Hogarth, opens the meeting with the observation that it is a beautiful day in Chile and ‘a beautiful day for whale conservation and management’.

Two Chilean ministers provide welcomes in Spanish. Regrettably the volume of the loudspeakers is so great than any chance of hearing the translation from the Spanish is drowned out.

But it is clear that they are welcoming everyone and wishing them well.

They both receive warm applause.

A coffee break follows. And here the news that many of you are waiting to hear: there are no biscuits. There have been no biscuits since the SC meetings opened at the beginning of the month. It seems biscuits are unable to make it across the Andes or the Pacific from the wider world.

NGOs are gathered in the break by the IWC Chair and he invites them, very unusually to make presentations later in the week – three from ‘each side’ (how many sides are there? – Two apparently!)

After coffee and no biscuits, Uruguay, as a new party is given the chance to make an opening statement but they are somewhere else (possibly looking for biscuits).

The IWC Chair then sets out some rules that he wishes the dance to proceed by. He requests that points of order are kept to a minimum. And adds that he does not expect any resolutions. He also notes that he will only allow second intervention from a country, once all have spoken. The lunch break he adds will be two hours long. This is important because it allows, potentially, time to run into town and locate real and cost-effective food.

He then gives the floor to Japan. The Commissioner notes that they will maintain their position that ‘Small Cetaceans’ (issues relating to the smaller whales, dolphins and porpoises) and certain other issues should be deleted from the agenda but in respect of the process established by the IWC Chair, they will not seek any amendment to the draft agenda. They hope that other members will also refrain from making resolutions and other matters that might ‘inflame things’. Morimoto adds that they are committed to ‘normalizing’ the IWC and promises a side-event on JARPA (Japanese ‘research’ in Antarctica) at lunch time on Wednesday.

Is the agenda adopted asks Chair Hogarth?

Denmark intervenes with one point along the following lines: ‘you might have noted that the EU has adopted a common position on a number of issues. I would like to clarify the position of Denmark. We are bound by a common position. But we have territories that are not part of the EU and their positions are taken care of by this delegation. Their positions may diverge. So, when I speak I will speak on their behalf.’

Suddenly, we are propelled to detailed and swift consideration of whale stocks:

Antarctic Minke whales.

The redoubtable chairman of the Scientific Committee, Arne Bjorge, details ongoing reaearch. There have been three surveys with an apparent appreciable decline shown from the last. For some time, the Committee has been trying to explore this to determine if it is a real decline. This work is still ongoing.

He also describes some ongoing work looking at the ear-plugs of whales for aging purposes.

New Zealand says that this is an excellent and helpful report. It is clear, says their Commissioner Sir Geoffrey Palmer, that there is a considerable amount of work ongoing but success is illusive! We still seem to be far away from an agreed estimate. Perhaps our interests would be better served if trends are looked at rather than an agreed number. This might, he suggests, show the impacts of climate change and, concerning the age estimate techniques using ear plugs, the RMP (the mechanism used to calculate commercial removal rates) has moved away from such estimates as they proved unreliable in the past. Any information gathered from reading ear-plugs is of questionable validity, he stresses.

Japan does not agree with New Zealand. He states that consideration of age is not useless. This is why the Scientific Committee is engaged in this. In fact, he suggests that the age data is still very important.

There are no other comments and the Scientific Committee recommendations are endorsed and we next hear from the Scientific Committee Chairman about Western North Pacific minke whales.

Following this several countries take to the floor to voice their concerns about the dwindling and genetically distinct population of whales in this region known as the J stock. Mexico for example is very concerned as is the US.

The SC Chair explains that his committee is considering this matter further via one of its ‘in-depth’ assessments.

Richard Cowan, the UK Commissioner, then makes his first intervention and thanks Chile for hosting. He adds, should the meeting not be a success, it will not be Chile’s fault. There is some gentle laughter. He associates with the US’s comments and says that he is very concerned.

Australia gives its thanks to the hosts too and with respect to the western north pacific minkes she stresses her concern for these animals. Total mortality continues to escalate, with high levels of bycatch (accidental deaths in fishing nets) in J and K. Australia calls for action on two fronts – better abundance estimates and that all genetic samples should be made freely available. Only then can appropriate advice be given.

Japan thanks the Chair of the SC for his excellent presentation and refers to extensive studies both lethal and non-lethal and states that he is proud of these studies. He thanks the Russian government for the opportunity to conduct sighting studies. He adds that the report of the SC might sound as if Japan had not done any research but they have.

Bycatch, he adds, is by coastal bycatch with nets set close to the shore. The size and shape of nets has been the same for thirty years. So, why more bycatch? His scientist are considering this but there is no rush to make a conclusion. After a few further comments, and endorsement of the scientific committee report, we close for a long lunch.