World Whaling Body Turns to Conservation, Away from Sole Focus on Whaling

6/16/2003

From: Tom Lalley of the World Wildlife Fund, 202-778-9544; 202/997-0899 (cell) web: http://www.worldwildlife.org

BERLIN, June 16 -- After 55 years of focusing on whaling, the 47-member International Whaling Commission today voted to expand its mission to include conservation of whales, dolphins and porpoises, the group of animals known broadly as cetaceans. By a vote of 25-20, the body voted to expand the organization's focus to the full range of conservation threats to the ocean's largest animals.

"Today's vote brings the IWC into the 21st century. After more than five decades as a whalers forum, the IWC has put conserving whales on an equal legal footing with hunting them," said Richard Mott, vice president, World Wildlife Fund. "This decision is in step with public opinion that believes whales are for watching and studying rather than killing."

Known as the Berlin Initiative the vote formalizes for the first time the ability of the IWC to address all threats to whales, dolphins and porpoises, not just the 14 species of large whales that have been traditionally hunted.

The largest threat -- by far -- to cetaceans is entanglement in fishing nets, which kills approximately 308,000 of the animals each year, according to the first ever global estimate done on cetacean bycatch which was released last week. Other threats include toxic contamination and climate change. The initiative will also allow the IWC to address economic and cultural activities like whale watching.

The initiative creates a Conservation Committee, which will facilitate research on threats to cetaceans and funding to address them. The initiative was proposed by Mexico and supported by 19 other governments including the United States, Italy and Germany.

The IWC was established under the 1946 International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling.