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Present and Future Conservation Management of Antarctic Baleen Whales

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Abstract

The massive reduction of whales as a result of commercial whaling is one of the single largest human impacts to the Antarctic marine ecosystem. Systematic hunting of over 1.3 million whales, in only 70 years, almost eliminated an entire group from the marine ecosystem. While the setting of catch limits to zero for conservation and management purposes (the moratorium) has saved many heavily exploited populations from extinction, at the same time there has been a dramatic expansion of ‘Special Permit’ (scientific) whaling, conducted both within and outside of designated whale sanctuaries. Here we discuss a number of future management scenarios that include an expanding conservation agenda, a continuation of ‘Special Permit’ whaling, a cessation in whaling and resumption of commercial whaling. To conclude, we briefly speculate on a number of potential threatening processes associated with growing levels of commercial, governmental and private human activity that may not only impact whales but Antarctica as a whole.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Six species of baleen whale are defined as true Antarctic whales. These species are humpback (Megaptera novaeangliae), blue (Balaenoptera musculus intermedia), Antarctic minke (Balaenoptera bonaerensis), fin (Balaenoptera physalus), sei (Balaenoptera borealis) and southern right (Eubalaena australis) whales and all are generally found south of the Antarctic Polar Front, at approximately 50–60°S.

  2. 2.

    The intergovernmental body established in 1946 to 'provide for the proper conservation of whale stocks and thus make possible the orderly development of the whaling industry’.

  3. 3.

    The decision is codified in Paragraph 10(e) of the IWC Schedule, which reads: 'Notwithstanding the other provisions of paragraph 10, catch limits for the killing for commercial purposes of whales from all stocks for the 1986 coastal and the 1985/86 pelagic seasons and thereafter shall be zero. This provision will be kept under review, based on the best scientific advice, and by 1990, at the latest the Commission will undertake a comprehensive assessment of the effects of this decision on whale stocks’.

  4. 4.

    The northern boundary of the Sanctuary follows the 40°S parallel of latitude except in the Indian Ocean sector where it joins the southern boundary of that sanctuary at 55°S, and around South America and into the South Pacific where the boundary is at 60°S.

  5. 5.

    ICRW Article VIII permits a Contracting Government to grant to any of its nationals a special permit authorising that national to kill,take and treat whales ‘‘for purposes of scientific research subject to such restrictions as to number and subject to such other conditions as the Contracting Government thinks fit, and the killing, taking and treating of whales in accordance with the provisions of this Article shall be exempt from the operation of this Convention’.

  6. 6.

    Conceptually the new catch allocation approach differed from its predecessors in that management advice was to be based on a fully specified set of rules that would be tested in simulations of a wide variety of scenarios that would specifically take uncertainty into account.

  7. 7.

    This process, referred to as an ‘Implementation’ (in the IWC context, meaning that the Scientific Committee notifies the Commission that it could produce information on catch limits if asked to do so), focuses primarily on uncertainties about stock structure, in particular temporal and spatial variation in the mixing of stocks in areas where whaling is to take place.

  8. 8.

    Where information about possible stock structure, specification of likely future removals (by both whaling and other anthropogenic causes), hypotheses about the size and spatial distribution of historical catches and the abundance and migration data are reviewed.

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Acknowledgments

We thank our IWC colleagues who have discussed many of the issues raised in this chapter with us over the years. We also thank Wendy Elliot, Russell Leaper and Tina Tin for insightful comments for which this chapter is all the much better for.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Locked Bag 49, Hobart, 7001, Australia

    Rebecca Leaper

  2. Blue Planet Marine, 613, Kingston, Hobart, TAS, 7051, Australia

    Simon Childerhouse

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  1. Rebecca Leaper
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  2. Simon Childerhouse
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Correspondence to Rebecca Leaper .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Challes-les-Eaux, Savoie, France

    Tina Tin

  2. Gateway Antarctica University of Canterbury, Christchurch, Canterbury, New Zealand

    Daniela Liggett

  3. University of Northern British Columbia Outdoor Recreation & Tourism Management, Prince George, British Columbia, Canada

    Patrick T Maher

  4. Environmental Policy Group, Wageningen University, Wageningen, The Netherlands

    Machiel Lamers

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Leaper, R., Childerhouse, S. (2014). Present and Future Conservation Management of Antarctic Baleen Whales. In: Tin, T., Liggett, D., Maher, P., Lamers, M. (eds) Antarctic Futures. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-6582-5_4

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