Progress report for
Securing protection for the oceans giants
Achievement at a glance
In 2019, OceanCare has supported further initiatives by partner organisations to assist in the transition from whaling to whale watching and advancing conservation education in whaling communities.<br>
<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 continued in 2019.
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<br>OceanCare helps spreading the evidence presented by the IMF study (Chami et al.) about whales as nature based solution to climate change through environmental education and within our policy work. The organisation is advocating to ensure that decision-making reflects that the ecological contributions of cetaceans are a public good and efforts for whale conservation are stepped up, both within the IWC and biodiversity MEAs, such as CMS.
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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 dedicating our work to uphold the international whaling moratorium, we are protecting ocean giants from directed hunts. Every single animal thereby plays an important role as blue carbon sink and by stimulating primary production, as well as other vital ecosystem services.<br>- OceanCare believes in dialogue and communicates in a way that creates trust, rather than reinforcing polarised views. Through encouraging initiatives that allows people from whaling countries to have their voices heard, as well as allowing them to experience whales in their natural environment, we wish to embrace different perspectives and together embark on a new journey.
<br>- We work on eliminating numerous threats, such as marine plastic pollution, underwater noise pollution, bycatch and ship strikes and passionately work that legislation banning direct catches of both large and small cetaceans is being implemented and controlled.
<br>- OceanCare continues to work that transparency and due process are upheld within the IWC, as well as that decisions are implemented, controlled and enforced. OceanCare also encourages closer collaboration with other MEAs.
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