By Miguel A. Iñíguez Bessega
President

2010 comes forward as a key year for the future of cetaceans, particularly for whales. In 2007, the International Whaling Commission began, at its 59th annual meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, a process of modernization of the convention. For the countries that still practice whaling, despite the moratorium on commercial whaling that has been implemented since 1986, this process should take them to the origins of the IWC, when only whaling was regulated.

Certainly since 1946 to date many things have changed, cetaceans face up to other problems and their populations are threatened by factors even more severe than whaling. Since the early twentieth century when whales were captured without any control, some of their populations almost reach extinction and even a century later, many of them are still struggling for their survival.

Today whales face up to other problems. Climate change is leading to changes in sea surface temperature, increased acidification of marine environment, increased UV radiation with harmful implications on the food chain, occurrence of diseases that were not previously reported, mass mortality caused by epidemics or effects of biotoxins. Human activities also impact on cetacean populations, today ship-strikes with cetaceans, entanglement in fishing gears whose numbers would exceed 300,000 deaths per year, over-fishing that impacts on the preys of these marine mammals, increased levels of pollution from all sources, including the apparent increase in noise pollution, and, of course, whaling under special permits (scientific catches) and due to reservations and objections to the moratorium are the main ones that are being reported.

Conservationist countries consider that it is necessary to include all these issues in the new agenda of the IWC. Within this process, that began 3 years ago, Cethus mainly wants the maintenance of the moratorium; the end of whaling under special permits, objections or reservations; the implementation of the South Atlantic Whale Sanctuary and the recognition of the non-lethal use of cetaceans in the IWC’s agenda. In June 2010, at its 62nd annual meeting to be held in Agadir, Morocco, all of these issues will be discussed and we hope that, at the end of this process, cetaceans will be the winner.