The IWC s Revised Management Procedure (RMP) Guest lecture Dr. Andre Punt 16 April 2010

Transcription

1 The IWC s Revised Management Procedure (RMP) Guest lecture Dr. Andre Punt 16 April 2010

2 Modern Whaling 1) The invention of the explosive grenade harpoon by the Norwegian Svend Foyn in the 1860s 2) The development of fast steam-powered catcher boats 3) Allowed faster swimming rorquals to be caught

3 Antarctic Expansion /31: 41 factory ships, 37,000 whales 1925: invention of stern slipway : 6 stations, 21 factories, 10,716 whales : 1 station, 195 whales

4 The IWC Convention (1946) to provide for the proper conservation of whale stocks and thus make possible the orderly development of the whaling industry

5 A Short History of IWC Management until : Quotas implemented (1962 by nation) 1960: Establishment of the Committee of Three 1965: Protection for blue whales. 1974: Adoption of the New Management Procedure (NMP). 1982: Moratorium on commercial whaling adopted by IWC (objections by Peru, Norway, Japan and USSR). 1986: Moratorium comes into force.

6 The Blue Whale Unit (BWU) 1 blue whale = 2 fin whales 2.5 humpbacks 6 sei

7 multi-species management: bwu Species 1 Species 2 Species 3 Catch index Time

8 MSY rate Mortality rates Catch history Initial population size The New Management Pregnancy rate Age at sexual maturity Procedure (NMP) CPUE data Abundance Acme quotas 0 Blue whales 2,244 Minkes

9 The Essential NMP 60 Sustainable Yield MSY Protection stock Year MSYL

10 NMP Not-all-bad Management Procedure! Designed to bring stocks to optimum level Protected stocks at 54% initial Formal structure Took power away from politicians Assumed nearperfect knowledge of dynamics of all populations No way to deal with uncertainty Most whale stocks unclassified according to the NMP

11 Management Procedures Objectives must be explicitly stated and assigned priorities; Data and analysis requirements must be realistic and specified; Accept limitations and build the inevitable uncertainty explicitly into account; Rigorous testing with computer simulations; and Include feedback monitoring

12 Management Objectives Extreme objectives Avoid extinction of cetacean Do not affect profitability TRADE-OFFS

13 Management Objectives catch limits should be as stable as possible; catches should not be allowed on stocks below 54% of the estimated carrying capacity (as in the NMP); and the highest possible continuing yield should be obtained from the stock.

14 The RMP Philosophy If you have a management procedure that can t be implemented on a computer then it is incomplete! If you use a management procedure to manage a resource on a computer and it doesn t work there, it isn t likely to work in the real work!

15 Extinction is for ever.. Unless you manage Balaenoptera electronicus

16 The Evaluation Process Five groups of developers: Non-model based: Sakuramoto and Tanaka (Japan). Magnusson and Stefansson (Iceland). Model-based: Punt and Butterworth (South Africa). Cooke (Germany). De la Mare (Australia).

17 The Risk-Reward Trade-Off "Low" Catch The Commission s selection "Medium" "High" Long-term population size

18 Catch Limit Algorithm Specifies the way catch limits are calculated from required information Initially true situation poorly known Depletion level, productivity Abundance estimates Range of possible catch limits Acceptable level of risk Learns as more data become available Feed back procedure

19 The Full Monty RMS Stock-structure considerations Enforcement, observers, etc. ( non-scientific ) RMP CLA Single stock / area catch limits

20 What is the point of having a scientific Commitee if its unanimous recommendations are treated with such contempt?" "The Commission could now put in place a mechanism for the safe management of commercial whaling, regardless of whether "the moratorium" was lifted... the future of this unique piece of work... was left in the air.. the reasons for this were nothing to do with science. Although, despite the unanimity of the Scientific Committee's recommendation, some Commissioners used selective quotations out of context from the Committee's report to justify not adopting the revised management procedure on "scientific grounds". "I can no longer justify myself being the organiser and spokesman for a Committee whose work is held in such disregard by the body to which it is responsible. Nor can I justify asking other members of the Committee to spend their valuable time... knowing how the results of this work may be treated... I am left with no alternative, therefore, but to resign as Chairman of the Scientific Committee." (Phil Hammond, Chairman of the IWC Scientific Committee, in his letter of resignation, May 1993)

21 Current Status -I The Catch Limit Algorithm has been adopted by the Commission along with the multistock options. The non-scientific aspects of the Revised Management Scheme remain incomplete: Effective inspection and enforcement system. Arrangements to keep removals within catch limits.

22 Current Status - II Scientific Permit Catches / Bycatches and the RMP. Lack of good faith negotiation will the IWC Commission ever lift the moratorium / does it intend to really consider the issue? Different risk levels for commercial and aboriginal whaling (relates to the recent rejection of the US / Russian bowhead quotas)