IWC 60 - First Day of Plenary

The IWC meeting started off slowly today. There were the typical opening statements and introductions by the Chair, Bill Hogarth, and members of the Chilean government. After only a half hour of remarks, we broke for coffee. As you can see, the pace was slow to say the least. When we returned, the secretary discussed some IWC business. There are three new member nations this year: Uruguay, Republic of Congo and Romania (only Uruguay is in attendance). Although I don’t have an exact count, it seems that the anti-whaling (or “like-minded”) countries have a slight majority. At the NGO meeting yesterday, we found out that for the first time Dominica and Nicaragua are not going to vote in line with Japan this year. The Chair spoke about the new spirit of cooperation in the IWC and how they are going to try to vote by consensus and avoid antagonistic language. So far, there are no resolutions set to come to a vote and he asked that if any country is going to propose a resolution, they give other member countries due notice so as not to surprise (i.e. upset) them. Japan spoke to say that in this spirit, they would not propose changes to the agenda (such as the elimination of small cetaceans and whale watching) as they have in the past. In other news, the European Union (EU) will be voting as a block this year, although Denmark pointed out that on some issues (such as the Greenland hunt) they might have to diverge from the EU. Finally, NGOs will participate this year; they have been given 30 minutes on the agenda for three pro and three anti-whaling NGOs to speak for five minutes each.

We then dove into the report from the Scientific Committee (SC) on stock assessments. These began before lunch and carried through mid afternoon. There was nothing too surprising here; the SC stated that they’ve made “good progress” on a number of stock assessments, including southern hemisphere humpback whales, Antarctic minke whales, and North Pacific minke whales, but were not yet ready to state abundance estimates. During the discussion on Antarctic minke whales, the SC Chair mentioned the results of three circumpolar abundance cruises. The third cruise sighted fewer whales than the second and it is unclear if this is due to a real negative trend. New Zealand and Japan spoke up here wondering what is going on. Japan said that they will give a presentation on Wednesday in which they’ll offer their theory (which I have heard has something to do with interspecies interactions, but it’ll be interesting to hear what they have to say). The IWC expressed continued concern for western North Pacific gray whales; five females have died in the last three years. If this continues, the population could be extinct by 2050. IWC members expressed support for working with oil and gas companies to mitigate impacts and to create sanctuaries to protect these whales.

The next item on the agenda was humane killing methods and other welfare issues. Norway, the Russian Federation, and the US (and a very small report from Denmark on behalf of Greenland) gave reports on killing methods and number of animals struck and lost. There was a noticeable lack of report from Japan. Japan stated that they no longer give a report because their data were used differently than other nations and anti-whaling supporters used the most extreme cases to lobby against them. Several countries stated that the issue of humane killing methods is outside of the purview of the IWC. Other nations countered that the IWC needs these reports because welfare must be a part of any whale management regime.

With that, we adjourned for the day to head to a reception at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. There we enjoyed good Chilean wine, very little food, and native music. Tomorrow morning starts bright and early with an NGO meeting with the US delegation.