Press release - 19 June, 2003
Greenpeace today brought the reality of the oceans crisis directly to the International Whaling Commission (IWC) meeting at the Estrel Hotel in Berlin. Delegates were brought face to face with the bodies of three harbour porpoises, representing 300,000 whales, dolphins and porpoises that die by drowning every year from accidental entanglement in nets.
Greenpeace brings the body of a harbour porpoise to the International Whaling Commission (IWC) delegates at the Estrel Hotel in Berlin.
Today the IWC withdrew a resolution that would have helped to
reduce these bycatch deaths because it did not have the full
support of the meeting.
"We want to see some real action to reduce these deaths," says
Greenpeace oceans campaigner Richard Page. "We remind the IWC of
their responsibility for all cetaceans, from large whales to small
porpoises.
"The IWC s establishment of a conservation committee this year
under the Berlin Initiative is a positive step. For it to make a
real difference all IWC member countries must support the
committee, resource it adequately and implement its recommendations
without delay," says Page. The harbour porpoises presented to the
meeting came from endangered populations in the Baltic Sea and
showed clear marks and scars identifying them as fisheries bycatch.
Fisheries bycatch is threatening the survival of the Central and
Eastern population of Baltic harbour porpoise, which numbers no
more than 600 animals. Of these, 20 were washed ashore dead last
year and 6-7 are reported as dying every year in nets, but the real
figure may be more. The population could be extinct in 20
years.
The annual bycatch of harbour porpoise in the Baltic and North
seas and adjacent waters is estimated at 10,000 but many deaths go
unrecorded. In the Danish set-net fleet alone the average annual
bycatch is estimated to be 6,785. (1)
Greenpeace demands the IWC use the new Berlin Initiative to
address bycatch and the other environmental threats facing whales,
dolphins and porpoises like toxic pollution, ship strikes, noise
pollution and continued commercial whaling. The conservation
committee proposal received strong opposition from the whaling
nations and their allies but was voted for by a majority of the IWC
s 47 voting countries.
"The new committee must be held accountable for fulfilling its
mandate bestowed by the IWC and the conservation efforts must apply
to all whales, dolphins and porpoises," says Page "Top order
predators like the harbour porpoise are crucial to the continued
health of our ocean ecosystems. "
Notes: (1) Morten Vinther (1999) Bycatches of harbour porpoises (Phocoena phocoena L.) in Danish set-net fisheries. Journal of Cetacean Research and Management Vol.1, No.2 123-135