SAVETHEWHALESAVETHESOUTHERNOCEAN

Why preventing whaling in the SouthernOcean is crucial for the world's whales

Species ProgrammeWWF InternationalAv. du Mont-Blanc1196 GlandSwitzerland

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Why preventing whaling in

the Southern Ocean iscrucial for the world’s whalesThe Southern Ocean is critical to ensuring the recovery andviability of the great whale populations in the southernhemisphere. It provides the feeding grounds needed tosustain most southern hemisphere great whales – whichcoastal communities from Australia to Latin America to Africaare reliant upon for livelihoods and income derived fromwhale watching tourism. After rampant commercial whaling inthe twentieth century brought most great whale species inthe Southern Ocean close to extinction, the InternationalWhaling Commission (IWC) established the Southern OceanWhale Sanctuary in 1994, recognising the critical importanceof protecting whales in this special place. Since the inceptionof the sanctuary, threats to whales in the Southern Ocean havebroadened to include climate change, ship strikes, thepotential of over-fishing and acoustic and chemical pollution.If whales in the southern hemisphere are to fully recover,the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary must be fully respectedby all contracting governments to the IWC. WWF therefore urgesall contracting governments to the IWC to reject any proposalthat would set catch limits for whaling in the Southern Ocean.

Published June 2010

This report was written by the WWFInternational Species Programme and theWWF Antarctic and Southern OceanInitiative. The report is available atwww.panda.org/iwc.

For more information please contactWendy Elliott, welliott@wwfint.org or Rob Nicoll, rnicoll@wwf.org.au

Photography

Cover Montage; Southern right whale(Eubalaena australis) underwater off theAuckland Islands © Brian J. Skerry / NationalGeographic Stock / WWF

Page 2 and 3; Southern right whale,Argentina © James Frankham / WWF-Canon

Page 4; Sea ice Rothera Station, AntarcticPeninsula © Cassandra Phillips / WWF-Canon

Page 6 & 7; Humpback whale (Megapteranovaeangliae) © Cat Holloway / WWF-Canon

Page 8; Blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus);Trincomalee Bay, Sri Lanka © Jonathan Gordon/ WWF-Canon

Page 10 & 11; Southern right whale(Eubalaena australis) off the Auckland Islands,New Zealand © Brian J. Skerry / NationalGeographic Stock / WWF

Page 12 & 13; Humpback whale (Megapteranovaeangliae) © Sylvia Earle / WWF-Canon

Page 15; Eye of a Southern right whale © Brian J. Skerry/ National Geographic Stock/WWF

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Design: InsideOut Creative Limitedwww.insidetheoutside.co.uk

1The Southern Ocean – the seasurrounding the continent ofAntarctica – is one of the world'smost spectacular and ecologicallyimportant environments, and ishome to thousands of speciesthat live nowhere else. Thecontinent of Antarctica is thecoldest, windiest and driest placeon the planet, yet the oceanssurrounding it are some of themost productive on Earth,containing abundant marine liferanging from tiny photosyntheticorganisms to the largest knownanimal ever to live on this planet –the 30 meter long blue whale.There are two main reasons whythe Southern Ocean is so full oflife. The first is the existence of alarge amount of nutrients in thewater, which act as a fertiliser,allowing for vigorous growth of

tiny photosynthetic organisms(organisms which harness theenergy of the sun to grow), oralgae, which form the basis of thefood chain. These nutrients arebrought to the Southern Ocean bythe southerly flow of deep,nutrient-rich water known as‘Circumpolar Deep Water’ whichrises to the surface (upwells) nearthe continent of Antarctica andmakes nutrients available tophotosynthetic organisms in thesunlit waters near the surface,which then grow into large‘phytoplankton blooms’. Thesecond reason the SouthernOcean is so productive is thatover the six summer months thesun never sets, meaning thatphotosynthesis, and growth of thephytoplankton blooms, can occur24 hours a day.

Taking advantage of thisabundant production are theSouthern Ocean’s most plentifulresidents - the small shrimp-likeAntarctic krill, Euphausia superba,which feed on the tinyphotosynthetic diatoms whichmake up the phytoplanktonblooms. It is quite possible thatkrill are the most abundant animalspecies in the world. As krillmature, they aggregate into hugeschools or swarms so dense thatthey turn the water red or orange1.Within a school of krill, 30,000individual animals can be foundwithin one cubic meter ofseawater2. The total surface of thedistribution of Antarctic krill isapproximately 36 million km2

(equivalent to an area four and ahalf times the size of Australia3)and the total biomass of krill inthe Southern Ocean is estimatedto be around 350 million tonnes.Compare this with the currenttotal world fish catch of less than100 million tonnes4, and it is easyto see the enormous source ofprotein this represents.

Sea ice Rothera Station, Antarctic Peninsula, Antarctica

1. Gascon, V., and Werner, R. 2005. An article prepared for the lighthouse foundation. Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition.2. FARO. Biology and Fisheries History of the Commercially Harvested Species. Downloaded 21.4.2010 http://www.fao.org/DOCREP/003/W5911E/w5911e07.htm#b1-

4.1%20Antarctic%20krill%20%28Euphausia%20superba%29 3. Gascon, V., and Werner, R. 2005. An article prepared for the lighthouse foundation. Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition.4. FARO. 2009. World Fisheries production, by capture and aquaculture, by country (2007). Food and Agriculture Organisation. Downloaded 21.04.2010

ftp://ftp.fao.org/fi/stat/summary/default.htm 4

The importance of theSouthern Ocean for whales

5. Perrin, W.F., Wursig, B., Thewissen, J.G.M. 2009. Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals. Academic Press, Elsevier Inc. 6. Nicol, S., Bowie, A., Jarman, S., Lannuzel, D., Meiners, K.M., van der Merwe, P. 2010. Southern Ocean iron fertilization by baleen whales and Antarctic

krill. Fish and Fisheries. Published online: 30 Mar 2010. © 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

Krill are considered to be one of,if not the, most important link inmost Southern Ocean foodchains and are a key preyspecies for whales, seals, fish,squid, penguins and otherseabirds. Many Southern Oceanbaleen whales consume krillalmost exclusively, althoughcopepods and small schoolingfish are also eaten, especially bySouthern right whales and seiwhales. Baleen whales feed onkrill by filtering them out of thewater using their baleen, whichare huge plates of bone in theirmouths in place of teeth. Baleenwhales eat 30-50 million tonnesof krill in the Antarctic each year.Toothed whales (whales whichhave ‘teeth’ rather than baleenplates) take advantage of highdensities of other animals whichfeed on krill – such as squid, fishand in the case of killer whales,seals and penguins. Beakedwhales and sperm whales areestimated to consume 14 milliontonnes of squid each year.

The abundance of krill in theSouthern Ocean means thatwhilst the area accounts forabout only 10% of the world’soceans, it probably supportsmore than 50% of the world’smarine mammal biomass,including six species ofpinnipeds (seals), eight speciesof baleen whales, and at leastseven species of toothedwhales5 (see box 1). Theparticular biology and foraginghabitats of many baleen whalespecies mean that they rely onlarge, concentrated, high densityfood reserves – attempts to feedon more dispersed food sourcesare not energy efficient. TheSouthern Ocean provides thesehigh density food reserves inabundance, and therefore theimportance of the SouthernOcean for whale conservationcan not be overstated.

Whilst the Southern Ocean isimportant for whales, whales arealso important for the Southern

Ocean. Iron is a critical elementin the region as it enables thegrowth of the algae which formthe basis of the food chain.When the algae die, they sinkand strip iron from the ocean’ssurface. However when thealgae is eaten by krill, which isthen eaten by whales, the iron isexcreted back into the water inwhale faeces. The ironconcentration of baleen whalefaeces has been found to beabout 10 million times that ofAntarctic seawater, so thefaeces acts as a fertiliser foralgal growth6. Increasingpopulations of baleen whalesand krill would therefore have a positive feedback effect onthe productivity of the entireSouthern Ocean ecosystem,and would also play a role inglobal climate regulation asalgae absorb CO2 from theatmosphere, acting as acarbon sink and helpingreduce climate change.

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Whales of the Southern OceanBaleen whales include blue (Balaenoptera musculus intermedia), pygmy blue (Balaenoptera musculusbrevicauda), fin (Balaenoptera physalus), sei (Balaenoptera borealis), Antarctic minke (Balaenopterabonaerensis), dwarf minke (Balaenoptera acutorostrata subsp.) humpback (Megatera novaeangeliae)and Southern right (Eubalaean australis).

Toothed cetaceans include the hourglass dolphin (Lagenorhynchus cruciger), long-finned pilot whale(Globicephala melas), the killer whale (Orcinus orca), Southern bottlenose whale (Hyperoodonpanifrons), sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus) and Southern fourtooth whale (Berardius arnuxii).

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2Most of the great whales spendsummers on productive feedinggrounds and then migrate to theirwinter breeding/calving grounds inwarmer waters, and are believedto feed little, if at all, while awayfrom their feeding grounds7. In thesouthern hemisphere, theSouthern Ocean constitutes thefeeding ground for the majority ofthe great whales, with somewhales travelling thousands ofmiles to the area in the summermonths to feed on its abundantfood resources.

The humpback whale, for example,spends the summer feeding on krillin the Southern Ocean, thentravels to warmer waters in wintermonths to calve.

These winter habitats include: • The coast of Brazil• The coast of West Africa from

the Gulf of Guinea down to South Africa

• The coasts of eastern South Africa, Mozambique, Madagascar (southern, western and eastern coasts), Mayotte, the Comoros and other western Indian Ocean island groups

• The coast of Northwestern Australia

• The coast of northeastern Australia, New Caledonia, Tonga and Fiji

• The Cook Islands and French Polynesia

• Ecuador, Galapagos, Colombia, Panama and Costa Rica.

Although some humpback whalefeeding has been observed in theBenguela Current ecosystem onthe migration route west of SouthAfrica, the Southern Ocean is themain feeding ground of humpbackwhales, and it is believed that theydo not feed to a significant extentelsewhere.

7. Perrin, W.F., Wursig, B., Thewissen, J.G.M. 2009. Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals. Academic Press, Elsevier Inc.

Impacts in the Southern Ocean affectwhale populations in the rest of thesouthern hemisphere

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The situation is similar for otherbaleen whales species, such asthe Southern right whale whichspends the summer in theSouthern Ocean, and thenwinters at Peninsula Valdes,Argentina, the coast of Australiaand along the coast of SouthAfrica8. The winter habitats ofblue whales which spend thesummer in the Southern Oceanare not well known, but theseanimals potentially migrate tothe waters off Namibia, SouthAfrica, Angola, Australia,Western South America andCongo, although it is possiblethat a proportion of thepopulation remains in theSouthern Ocean year round.

If whale populations in theSouthern Ocean are disturbedand not able to feed sufficiently

in the Southern Ocean, it ispossible they would not havethe energy to make their longmigrations to their tropicalwintering regions. This meansthat if whale populations wereagain decimated in theSouthern Ocean, these whalesmay also disappear from theseas around many othercountries in Africa, Oceania andLatin America. This is not onlyimportant from a conservationperspective, but hassocioeconomic implications aswell, with coastal communitiesin many southern hemispherecountries generating significantincome from whale watchingtourism which has grownexponentially in recent decades.By 2008, 13 million touristsparticipated in whale watchingeach year in 119 differentcountries and territories

worldwide, generating a totalexpenditure of US$2.1 billion9.

In Latin America alone, 885,679people per year are going whalewatching, spending USD $79.4million in direct expenditure(ticket sales) and USD $278.1million in total expenditure.Whale watching is thus makinga vital socioeconomiccontribution to the developmentof local communities throughoutLatin America10, often in remotecoastal communities whichhave few alternative livelihoodopportunities. However, athriving whale watching industryis dependent on healthy whalepopulations, and in order tostrengthen this growingindustry, it is critical that whalesare protected not only in theareas where the tourism occurs,but also in their Southern Oceanfeeding grounds.

8. Perrin, W.F., Wursig, B., Thewissen, J.G.M. 2009. Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals. Academic Press, Elsevier Inc. 9. OʼConnor, S., Campbell, R., Cortez, H. and Knowles, T. 2009. Whale watching worldwide: tourism numbers, expenditures and expanding economic benefits, a special report from

the International Fund for Animal Welfare. Yarmouth MA, USA. Prepared by Economists at Large.10.Hoyt, E. And Iniguez, M. 2008. The State of Whale Watching in Latin America. WDCS, Chippenham, UK; IFAW, Yarmouth Port, USA; Global Ocean, London. 60pp.

Figure 1: Some of the areas where Southern Ocean whales spend the winter months

Estimated specific breeding areas for:Minke Whales

Estimated migratory routes of Humpback whalesSouthern Ocean feeding area

Composite of estimated breeding grounds for Blue, Fin, Sei, Minke and Humbpack whales

Southern Right Whales

Humpback Whales Southern Ocean Sanctuary Boundary

Estimated migratory routes of Minke whales

Hypothesised migratory routes Humpback whales

80°S

70°S

60°S

50°S

40°S

30°S

20°S

10°S

180° 160°W 140°W 120°W100°W 100°W80°W 60°W 40°W 20°W 0°E 20°E 40°E 60°E 80°E 100°E 120°E 140°E 160°E

Adapted from Davies, C.R., and Gales, N. 2004. A brief review of sanctuary theory as it applies to the review of the Southern Ocean Sanctuary and observedpatterns in great whale populations in the Southern Ocean. IWC Scientific committee document SC/56/SOS2

3Whales in the Southern Ocean are stillseverely depleted from previous whaling

11. Perrin, W.F., Wursig, B., Thewissen, J.G.M. 2009. Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals. Academic Press, Elsevier Inc. 12. Nicol, S., Worby, A., Leaper, R. 2008. Changes in the Antarctic sea ice ecosystem: potential effects on krill and baleen whales. Marine and Freshwater Research. 59, 361-38213. Clapham, P. J., and Baker, C. S. (2002). Whaling, modern. In ʻEncyclopedia of Marine Mammalsʼ. (Eds W. F. Perrin, B. Wursig and J. G. M. Thewissen.) pp. 1328–1332.

(Academic Press: San Diego, CA.)14. Mizroch, S. A., Rice, D.W., Breiwick, J. M. NOAA blue whale fact sheet.15. Shaw, I. M.. 2005. Antarctica and the Great Southern Ocean. The Great Adventure People.

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By the summerof 1965-66,the combinedefforts of allAntarcticwhaling fleetscould find onlyone solitaryblue whaleto kill.

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Eventually, the InternationalWhaling Commission took actionto regulate the hunts – forexample, banning hunting ofSouthern Ocean humpbackwhales in 1963 (although illegalhunting by the Soviet Unioncontinued until 1972, leading to apopulation crash), followed byblue whales in 1964, fin whales in1976 and sei whales in 1978. In1982, the IWC decided toimplement a pause or‘moratorium’ in commercialwhaling for all species whichtook effect from the 1986 coastaland 1985/86 pelagic whalingseasons. However themoratorium came too late forwhales in the Southern Ocean.Whales are an extremely longlived, slow reproducing group ofspecies (see BOX 2). It thereforetakes whales an extremely longtime to recover fromoverexploitation. Althoughseveral species have increasedin number since commercialwhaling ceased (blue whales forexample are estimated to havehad a rate of increase of 8.2%per year between 1978/79 and2003/4, and humpback whaleshad an estimated increase rate of12.4% for East Australia over1981-1996 and 10.9% for WestAustralia over 1977-199116) mostwhales in the Southern Oceanremain severely depleted whencompared with their pre-whalingpopulation levels. Table 1provides some estimates of how

the current populations of whalesin the Southern Ocean compareto the populations that may haveexisted prior to the commercialwhaling activities of the 20thcentury. It is important to notethat most of these figures arerough estimates at best. Theimmense area of the SouthernOcean, and the severelydepleted status of manypopulations, mean that isextremely difficult to establishprecise population estimates forwhale stocks in the SouthernOcean, and population

estimates, particularly pre-whaling population estimates,are often extrapolations with ahigh degree of uncertainty.

Furthermore the currentpopulation estimates that areavailable are mostly not recent,and some whale populations willlikely have recovered somewhatsince the estimates provided inTable 1 were calculated. It isclear that many more decades ofregular monitoring will berequired to provide robustestimates of absolute abundanceand recovery relative to pre-whaling population size17, andthe figures in Table 1 should betaken as an indicative guidelineonly. The uncertainty aroundpre-whaling and currentpopulation sizes of SouthernOcean whales increases theimportance of a precautionaryapproach to their management –including the prevention of lethalactivities such as whaling.

It is important to note howeverthat the use of genetictechniques to model whalepopulations is indicating thatpre-whaling populations mayhave been much higher thanpreviously envisaged. In theNorth Atlantic for example, pre-whaling population sizesestimated using genetictechniques were up to 10 timeshigher than estimates made fromhistorical documents and currentabundance estimates18.

Life cycle of Southern Ocean whales Blue whales: reach sexual maturity at 5-15 years, females give birth every 2-3 years after a 10-12 month gestation period.

Humpback whales: reach sexual maturity anywhere from 5 – 10 years, and inter birthintervals in females are most commonly 2 years.

Antarctic minke whales: reach sexual maturity at 7-8 years, and generation time isestimated at 23 years.

16. IWC. Whale Population Estimates. The International Whaling Commission’s most recent information on estimated abundance. www.iwcoffice.org/conservation/estimate.htmDownloaded 12th May 2010

17. The Palubmi Lab. Marine Population Biologicy, Marine Ecology and Evolution. Projects: Whales & History. Downloaded 6th May 2010. http://palumbi.stanford.edu/whales.html 18. The Palubmi Lab. Marine Population Biologicy, Marine Ecology and Evolution. Projects: Whales & History. Downloaded 6th May 2010. http://palumbi.stanford.edu/whales.html 20. Perrin, W.F., Wursig, B., Thewissen, J.G.M. 2009. Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals. Academic Press, Elsevier Inc.

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“Most whalesin the SouthernOcean remainseverelydepleted whencomparedwith theirpre-whalingpopulationlevels.

The Southern Ocean was thescene of one of the mostdestructive periods in the historyof human overexploitation.Industrial whaling began in theearly years of the twentiethcentury, and continued for morethan 60 years, during which timeit removed about 71 milliontonnes of whale biomass, oraround 1.4 million individualwhales, from the SouthernOcean11. When the industrybegan whales were so abundantthat the first whale was shotdirectly in front of the whalingstation. The industry targeted thelargest and most profitablewhales first, and when thesewhales were harder to find,targeted progressively smallerspecies, with whaling recordsindicating a serial depletion ofblue, fin, sei, and humpbackwhales, with hunting efforts finallyfocusing on minke whales12.

Records of whales killed werefalsified; for example, Sovietwhalers took 23,000 more seiwhales and 43,000 morehumpbacks than reported inofficial whaling records13. Therewere no regulations regardingspecies, age or sex of whalestaken, which exacerbated theimpact of the whaling activities as even calving mothers andjuveniles were harvested. In thesummer of 1930-1931, 29,410blue whales were taken14. Bythe summer of 1965-66, thecombined efforts of all Antarcticwhaling fleets could find onlyone solitary blue whale to kill15. In just 60 years, this recklessbehaviour had turned theSouthern Ocean from an areawith some of the highestdensities of whales in the world,into a place where most whalespecies were on the brink ofextinction.

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Species IUCN listing Pre-whalingpopulationestimate

Most recentavailable

population estimate

Whales killedin 20th century

whaling

AntarcticBlue whale

Criticallyendangered

239,000 (IUCN) 1,150 – 4,50021

(excluding pygmy blue)in 1997/98

Approximate point estimate: 2,300 (IWC)

329,21222 in 20th century inSouthern Ocean, +17,000 off

southern Africa (IUCN)

Fin whale Endangered Nearly 400,00023 15,178 in 1983or 38,185 in 199724 (IUCN)

725,000 between 1905-76 in thesouthern hemisphere (IUCN)

Humpbackwhale

Least concern. Oceania

subpopulation- Endangered

100,00025 34,000 – 52,000in 1997/9826.

Approximate pointestimate: 42,000 (IWC)

Over 200,000 killed insouthern hemisphere

between 1904 and 197326

Southernright whale

Least concern 55,000-70,000 in 1770for whole southernhemisphere (IUCN)

About 7,50028 in 1997 (IWC)Population went as low

as 300 in the 1920s

150,000 between 1770 and 1900 (conservative estimate)

(IUCN)

Sei whaleEndangered 64,000 in 1960 (IUCN)

excluding Area II (South Atlantic sector)

11,000 (1979) (IUCN)excluding Area II

(South Atlantic sector)

Over 200,000 insouthern hemisphere

between 1905-1979 (IUCN)

Antarcticminkewhale

Data Deficient ~670,00029 No population estimatecurrently available (IWC)but a reduction of approx

60% was indicatedbetween 1978-91 and

1991-2004 (IUCN)

Nearly 100,000 in Antarctic,plus over 14,000 taken fromBrazilian land station during

1964-85 (IUCN)

Note: The figures in the above table come from the IWC where available, and where not available, come from the IUCN Red List.The respective source is indicated against each figure.

Table 1: Population estimates for Southern Ocean whales and whales killed in 20th century whaling

21.Estimated rate of increase is 8.5% per year between 1978/79 and 2003/422.This figure excludes 12,618 pygmy blue whale catches23.Perry, S.L., DeMaster, D.P. and Silber, G.K. 1999. Special Issue: The Great Whales: History and Status of Six Species Listed as Endangered Under the U.S. Endangered Species Act of

1973. Marine Fisheries Review. 61(1).24.Mori, M. and Butterworth, D.S. 2006. A first step towards modeling the krill-predator dynamics of the Antarctic ecosystem. CCAMLR Science, Vol. 13, 217-27725.Perry, S.L., DeMaster, D.P. and Silber, G.K. 1999. Special Issue: The Great Whales: History and Status of Six Species Listed as Endangered Under the U.S. Endangered Species Act of

1973. Marine Fisheries Review. 61(1).26.Rates of increase estimated at 12.4% for East Australia over 1981-1996, 10.9% for West Australia over 1977-199127.Mori, M. and Butterworth, D.S. 2006. A first step towards modeling the krill-predator dynamics of the Antarctic ecosystem. CCAMLR Science, Vol. 13, 217-27728.There is evidence of increase rates of 7-8% for populations of Argentina, Australia and South Africa.29.Ruegg, K. C., Anderson, E. C., Scott Baker, C., Vant, M., Jackson, J.A., Palumbi, S.R. 2010. Are Antarctic minke whales unusually abundant because of 20th century whaling?

Molecular Ecology 19, 281-291.

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Whale Populations

400,000

Fin whale

38,000

100,000

Humpback whale

42,000

7,500 11,000 2,300

64,000

Sei whale

55,000 -70’000

Southern right whale

239,000

Antarctic Blue whale

Status of Southern Ocean Whales Pre and Post 20th Century Whaling

Pre-whalingpopulationestimates

Latest availablepopulationestimates

725,000

Fin whale

200,000

Humpback whalewhale

200,000

Sei whale

150,000

Southern right whale

329,212

Antarctic Blue whale

Whales killedWhales killed in 20th Century Whaling

54Whales in the Southern Ocean facing anew raft of threats

The Southern Ocean is already a legallyestablished whale sanctuary

In the 21st Century, the SouthernOcean and its whales are facing aset of ever more serious threats.There is the potential forcommercial fishing to put unduepressure on valuable prey speciesof whales such as Antarctic krill.The expansion of tourism in theSouthern Ocean has lead toincreased acoustic and chemicalpollution, and the potential forship strikes with whales.

However, the greatest long-termthreat to the region is climatechange. The impacts of globalwarming appear to be mostdramatic in polar regions – theArctic and the Antarctic. Over thepast 50 years, the WesternAntarctic Peninsula has warmedmore than four times faster thanthe average rate of Earth’s overallwarming30. The Southern Oceanhas warmed all the way down to adepth of 3,000m31. Not all of theAntarctic is warming nor has thewarming been uniform. Howeverin areas where significant warminghas been experienced, terrestrialand marine ecosystems haveundergone dramatic change32.Perhaps of greatest concern toSouthern Ocean whales is theimpact of global warming on krill.Studies have indicated that krillpopulations have declined by asmuch as 80% in the Scotia Seaand northern Antarctic Peninsulasince the 1970s, with the declineslinked to the loss of winter seaice33. The specific impacts of krilldeclines for whales was notimmediately clear, but in 2006additional analyses revealed thatthe breeding success of thesouthern right whale was highlycorrelated with global climatesignals and the impacts of thosesignals on krill. The researchersconcluded that “even quite smallchanges in oceanographic

conditions in the Southern Oceancould affect southern right whalepopulation dynamics”34. Givencurrent and expected futurecommercial fishing pressure onAntarctic krill stocks, the potentialjoint impact of climate change andfishing for krill could have asignificant impact on the recoveryof decimated great whalepopulations in the SouthernOcean.

Predicting the precise futureimpacts of climate change on thewhales of the Southern Ocean is adifficult task. One study hasattempted to model these futureimpacts, using state of the artclimate models to predict how a2ºC global temperature increasewill affect Southern Oceanwhales35. Under a 2ºC warmingscenario, sea ice is projected to shrink by an average of 10-15%. This reduction could be up to 30% in some regions,meaning that species that areheavily dependent on sea ice,such as the Antarctic minkewhale, are projected to losebetween 5-30% of ice-associatedhabitat within 40 years – little morethan the life time of an individualwhale. Under 2ºC global warming,frontal zones – critical whalefeeding habitats – are alsoprojected to move southwards.Migratory whales such as thehumpback and blue whales wouldhave to travel even farther south(an extra 200-500km) to reach andfeed at these food-rich areas.These longer migration pathscould increase the energy costs ofmigration and reduce the durationof the main feeding season. Asfrontal zones move southward,they also move closer together,reducing the overall area offoraging habitat available.

In order to strengthen theresilience of Southern Oceanwhale populations as they facethis new raft of threats, it is ofparamount importance to avoidany losses of whales due towhaling.

The maintenance of the SouthernOcean Whale Sanctuary is also ofcrucial importance in a broadersense, to allow for a keyassessment of the impact ofclimate change to the overall healthof the Southern Ocean. Only whenSouthern Ocean whale populationshave stabilized from their currentrecovery phase will we have theopportunity to obtain a valuableassessment of the impact climatechange has had on the wholeecosystem. Therefore it is crucialthat the Southern Ocean WhaleSanctuary remain in place and thatthe recovery of the Southern Oceangreat whale species remainsundisturbed.

The need for whales in the SouthernOcean to be protected fromcommercial whaling activities haslong been recognised. The firstsanctuary to be established by theIWC was in the Antarctic, when in1938, the area south of 40°Sbetween longitudes 70°W and160°W was declared as acommercial whaling free zone. Thiswas primarily due to the fact thatthis sector had not yet been subjectto commercial whaling activities,and it was considered highlydesirable that the immunity whichwhales in this area had enjoyedshould be maintained. However thearea was opened up to commercialwhaling in 1955 initially for threeyears as a means of reducing thepressure of catches on the rest ofthe Antarctic whaling grounds.

In 1994 the IWC adopted theSouthern Ocean Sanctuary as anarea in which commercial whalingwas fully prohibited. The northernboundary of this Sanctuary followsthe 40°S parallel of latitude exceptin the Indian Ocean sector where it

joins the southern boundary of thatsanctuary at 55°S, and aroundSouth America and into the SouthPacific where the boundary is at60°S (see figure 2). The sanctuarywas written into the Schedule of theIWC with the following text‘commercial whaling, whether bypelagic operations or from landstations, is prohibited in … theSouthern Ocean Sanctuary’36. The text further clarified that ‘Thisprohibition applies irrespective ofthe conservation status of baleenand toothed whale stocks in thisSanctuary’. Japan was the onlycountry to vote against theSanctuary and lodged a formalobjection to the extent thatSanctuary applies to Antarctic minkewhales. Russia lodged an objectionto the Sanctuary but withdrew thisobjection in the same year.

This Sanctuary was intended to bereviewed in 2004, ten years after itsinitial adoption. Pre-empting this,Japan proposed a resolution in2002 aimed at undermining theSanctuary, but the resolution did notreceive sufficient support and was

not adopted. In 2004, the ScientificCommittee conducted its review ofthe Sanctuary, and concluded that a clarification of the objectives ofthe Sanctuary would be useful.Japan then proposed to abolish theSanctuary, but did not receiveenough support for this measure.

Today the IWC maintains theSouthern Ocean Whale Sanctuaryas an area where all commercialwhaling is prohibited. Japancurrently uses a loophole in theInternational Convention for theRegulation of Whaling (ICRW) whichallows the lethal take of whales forscientific purposes, and hasoperated a ‘scientific whaling’programme in the Southern Oceansince 1987. Japan has steadilyincreased the numbers of whales itkills in the Southern Ocean (see fig3), and in 2005 started takingendangered fin whales in additionto Antarctic minke whales. In total,Japan has taken 9,409 whales in the Southern Ocean in the name of “science” – 9,395 minke whalesand 14 fin whales.

Although the ICRW does contain aprovision that allows governmentsto kill whales for scientific purposes,it was written more than 60 yearsago, at a time when no practicablealternatives for lethal researchexisted. At that time, killing whaleswas unfortunately the only way tolearn some of the most basicbiological information, which wasthen used in setting catch quotas.In the last 60 years, non-lethaltechniques have been developedthat can provide the data requiredfor management more efficiently andaccurately than can lethal sampling.Given the availability of modern non-lethal techniques in common use bywhale scientists elsewhere in theworld, and the fact that the meatfrom whales killed in Japan’sscientific research programme isdirected straight into thecommercial meat market, it is clearthat Japan’s scientific research islittle more than a thinly veiledcommercial whaling operation.

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30. IPCC. 2007. United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Climate Change 2007 – The physical science basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fourth Assessment Report of the IPCC.31. Jacobs, S. 2006. Observations of change in the Southern Ocean. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A, 364, 1657-81.32. IPCC. 2007. United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Climate Change 2007 – Impacts, adaptation and vulnerability. Contribution of Working Group II to the Fourth Assessment Report of the IPCC.33. Atkinson, A., Siegel, V., Pakhomov, E. and Rothery, P. 2004. Long-term decline in krill stock and increase in salps within the Southern Ocean. Nature. 432, 100-103. 34. Leaper, R. Cooke, J., Trathan, P., Reid, K., Rowntree, V. and Payne, R. 2006. Global climate drives southern right whale (Eubalaena australis) population dynamics. Biol. Lett. Doi:10.1098/rsbl.2005.043135. Tynan, C. T. and Russell, J.L. 2008. Assessing the impacts of future 2ºC global warming on Southern Ocean cetaceans. International Whaling Commission, Scientific Committee document SC/60/E336. International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling, 1946 Schedule. Revised 2009. Available at: www.iwcoffice.org/_documents/commission/schedule.pdf

Figure 3: Numbers of whales taken by Japan in theSouthern Ocean under scientific permit

Fin Whales Minke Whales

6It is clear that the Southern Ocean is acritically important feeding habitat formost of the southern hemisphere’sgreat whale populations, and protectingwhales in the Southern Ocean isessential to secure healthy great whalepopulations in parts of the world as faraway as Africa, the Pacific Islands,Oceania and South and CentralAmerica, where coastal communitieshave a growing dependence on whalepopulations for a burgeoning whalewatching industry.

Whales in the Southern Ocean weresubjected to severe overharvesting in the twentieth century, with uncheckedcommercial whaling driving manyspecies to the brink of extinction. Whilstwhaling in the Southern Ocean has beenhalted by all but one government formore than two decades, whalepopulations have failed to recover asrapidly as hoped, and exist today atextremely depleted levels.

In addition, Southern Ocean whales arenow subject to a new and varied rangeof threats, most notably the predictedprofound impacts of climate change onthis fragile region.

The international community has longsince recognised the importance ofprotecting whales in the SouthernOcean, and whaling in the SouthernOcean has been specifically prohibitedby the IWC through the establishment ofthe Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.

WWF thus believes that it should be afundamental and unquestionableresponsibility of the contractinggovernments of the IWC to eliminateimmediately, or with a short phase outperiod, all whaling in the SouthernOcean Whale Sanctuary, including thelethal take of whales for ‘scientificresearch’, and reject any proposal in the IWC that would set whaling quotasin this area.

Conclusion and recommendation

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Figure 2: Map of established IWC sanctuaries – the Southern Ocean Sanctuary, and the Indian Ocean Sanctuary

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It is anunquestionableresponsibilityof thecontractinggovernmentsof the IWCto eliminateall whaling inthe SouthernOcean WhaleSanctuary

SAVETHEWHALESAVETHESOUTHERNOCEAN

Why preventing whaling in the SouthernOcean is crucial for the world's whales

Species ProgrammeWWF InternationalAv. du Mont-Blanc1196 GlandSwitzerland