International Whaling Commission

IWC Resolution 2000-7

Resolution on Environmental Change and Cetaceans

NOTING that the study of the effects of environmental changes on cetaceans is an integral part of their conservation and management;

RECALLING that, at the 49th Annual Meeting, the Commission requested the Scientific Committee to develop appropriate research in the priority areas identified by the Standing Working Group on Environmental Concerns (SWGEC), namely climate/environmental change, ozone depletion and UV-B radiation, chemical pollution, impact of noise, physical and biological habitat degradation, effects of fisheries, Arctic issues, disease and mortality events;

RECALLING that, at the 51st Annual Meeting, the Commission endorsed the SOWER 2000 and POLLUTION 2000+ research programmes, and provided core funding for these projects;

NOTING that the first research collaboration of IWC and CCAMLR under the SOWER 2000 programme, which took place during the 1999/2000 Antarctic season, was highly successful;

NOTING that the Scientific Committee has endorsed the further development of an IWC workshop on physical and biological habitat degradation;

NOTING that the Scientific Committee has endorsed the development of a symposium on competition between cetaceans and fisheries;

APPRECIATING the financial and in-kind contributions from several countries to these projects;

NOTING however that the funding available to the Scientific Committee for these environmental initiatives is currently insufficient to allow them to be fully implemented or developed;

NOW THEREFORE the Commission:

REITERATES its strong support for the research programmes SOWER 2000 and POLLUTION 2000+ and other investigations on the impact of environmental change on cetaceans;

CONGRATULATES the Scientific Committee for its success in conducting the first IWC-CCAMLR research collaboration in the Southern Ocean;

ENDORSES the further development of an IWC workshop on habitat degradation and a symposium on cetaceans and fisheries interactions;

WELCOMES the production by the Scientific Committee of the first State of the Cetacean Environment Report and requests the annual submission of this report to the Commission; and

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