Progress report for
Securing protection for the oceans giants
Achievement at a glance
In 2017, OceanCare provided financial support to the Workshop on whales and ecosystem-services (held at the Congress of the Society for Conservation Biology in July 2017). The workshop report was subsequently distributed by the Government of Chile via official IWC-Circular to all contracting governments and accredited observers.<br>
<br>Also, the Government of Chile invited participants to a new Small Working Group on Cetaceans and Ecosystem Functioning within the Conservation Committee to look at how best to advance this issue at the IWC. An OceanCare expert is part of this new IWC working group established in 2018.
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<br>At the 67th Meeting of the IWC in 2018 in Brazil, Resolution 2018-2 on Advancing the Commissions Work on the Role of Cetaceans in the Ecosystem Functioning was adopted.
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<br>In the lead up to IWC67, OceanCare updated a Briefing entitled Whaling and the Sustainable Development Goals. In the Briefing, specific recommendations are proposed for governments to address whaling and consider the future of the IWC in the context of the SDGs. Such Briefing was distributed to contracting governments, accredited observers and media.
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<br>OceanCare has supported initiatives by partner organisations to assist in the transition from whaling to whale-watching and advancing conservation education in whaling communities. Also, at IWC67 in Brazil, OceanCare supported Resolution 2018-5, The Florianpolis Declaration whose objectives are to safeguard whale species and populations to reach pre-industrial exploitation levels, to promote the principle of non-lethal usage of whales and to collaborate with other MEAs to protect cetaceans from all threats globally.
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<br>Since 2017, OceanCare has substantially funded outreach and awareness-raising activities within Peruvian fishing communities on the importance of dolphins for the marine ecosystem and to address the issue of direct takes of dolphins for shark bait. In 2018, respective workshops with fishermen were held in select ports. Such workshops continue in 2019.
Beneficiaries
- Marine ecosystem
<br>- Local people/communities in whaling countries
<br>- Endangered, threatened and protected species
<br>- Decision makers and MEAs
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Actions
- By protecting whales and small cetaceans from directed hunting, they remain in the marine ecosystem where they play an important role in the functioning of such ecosystem including the delivery of vital ecosystem services.<br>- OceanCare has been raising awareness since many years for the health risks associated with the consumption of whale and dolphin meat therefore directly contributing to better food safety.
<br>- By building bonds with the anti-whaling movement at a domestic level, OceanCare has helped to allow for long lasting shifts in the dialogue.
<br>- Given that whales and small cetaceans face numerous threats and cumulative and synergistic negative impacts, it is all the more important to eliminate whaling as the one threat that is easiest to spare the whales, simply by upholding the international whaling moratorium.
<br>- OceanCare has also been working to improve civil society participation within the IWC for many years. The organisation will continue to work to ensure that transparency and due process are upheld within the IWC.