International Whaling Commission

IWC Resolution 2000-2

Resolution on Whaling of Highly Endangered Bowhead Whales in the Eastern Canadian Arctic

WHEREAS the 52^nd meeting of the Scientific Committee concluded that the Davis Strait and the Hudson Bay-Foxe Basin bowhead whale stocks are two distinct and separate populations, both of which number in the low hundreds;

CONSIDERING THAT the Government of Canada withdrew from the IWC in 1982 but continues to allow the taking of bowhead whales in the Eastern Canadian Arctic;

CONCERNED THAT the Government of Canada has agreed to grant one license if requested from the Nunavut Wildlife Management Board to take one bowhead whale from the Hudson Bay-Foxe Basin stock in 2000-2001;

WHEREAS the IWC is concerned about whaling not conducted under the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (1946);

NOTING THAT the Government of Canada has been notified of IWC Resolutions 1996-9, 1998-13 and 1999-7, each of which calls for refraining from issuing permits to hunt either highly endangered bowhead whale stocks in the Eastern Canadian Arctic;

FURTHER NOTING THAT Canada is signatory to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982) which under Article 65 (Marine Mammals) requires that States co-operate through the appropriate international organizations for the conservation, management and study of cetaceans;

NOW THEREFORE THE COMMISSION:

REAFFIRMS its opposition to whaling conducted on highly endangered stocks of whales;

EXPRESSES particular concern that whaling activities in the Eastern Canadian Arctic are ongoing outside the control of the IWC;

URGES the Government of Canada to refrain from issuing a license for the taking of one bowhead whale from the Hudson Bay-Foxe Basin population;

INVITES the Government of Canada to rejoin the IWC and, in the meantime, not to issue further whaling permits;

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