さあ！諸君！捕鯨問題だ！

http://www.iwcoffice.org/_documents/sci_com/SCRepFiles2005/AnnexOsq.pdf


3. Effects of catches on stocks

a. This analysis is difficult or impossible to do without recent in-depth assessments of minkes, humpbacks and fin whales. No current agreed abundance estimates exist of these species in the area where JARPA II takes will occur. Similarly, stock structuring remains poorly defined in all species.


b. Particular concerns on this issue are:

i. The determination of the extent and possible reasons for an apparent substantial decline in abundance of Antarctic minke whales.

ii. The targeting of species that were subject to massive over-exploitation during earlier whaling, whose populations were taken to dangerously low levels and which remain well below their pre-exploitation abundance.

iii. A lack of any agreed estimates of fin whale abundance, population trend or stock structure.
iv. The potential of take of humpback whales from small, poorly understood and highly threatened populations in the South Pacific (e.g. Fiji, Samoa, Cook Islands etc)

v. The potential impact of takes of humpback whales on existing, non-lethal research programs in Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere in the Pacific.


c. Given the dramatic increase in the take of minke whales to levels that may exceed any RMP-derived catch limits, and notwithstanding our lack of agreed abundance data, the SC has no capacity to determine potential sustainability of takes because it has been instructed by the Commission ‘not to consider Southern Hemisphere minke whales in the context of implementation of the RMP unless advised to do so by the Commission’.