Closing early, the IWC concluded with some success for our region, but postponing key issues.

With the surprise of seeing the Chair returns to Latin America, this meeting was closed with the disappointment of seeing the real controversial issues, which were expected to be treated at this 61th IWC, without solution.

June 25th, 2009.- Funchal

After long years, the Chair of the IWC goes back to Latin America after the election of Ambassador Cristian Maquieira (Chile) as Chairman, and Anthony Liverpool (Antigua and Barbuda) as Vice President. In this respect the new Chair linked his appointment with recognition to the work done by the Buenos Aires Group.
"We congratulate Ambassador Maquieira on his recent appointment and we reiterate what was expressed on several occasions with respect to the outstanding work that, for several years, the Buenos Aires Group is conducting in favor of the conservation and non-lethal use of cetaceans, being glad at the same time because the Chair comes back to Latin America", said Vanesa Tossenberger.

Earlier in the morning, the expected discussions on the application submitted on Tuesday to add 10 Humpback whales to the current quota of Aboriginal Subsistence Whaling of Greenland, were taken up again. Due to a lack of agreement on the subject, the discussions on this topic were also postponed for an intersessional meeting to be held before the end of this year.
"After hearing the arguments, it is very difficult to accept this adjournment by the lack of ability to make a decision, in my opinion it takes a lot of credibility off the proceedings of the Committee. This topic was postponed day after day, to end up being totally postponed for an inter-sessional meeting to which many countries for budgetary reasons will not be able to attend..." said Vanesa Tossenberger, representative of Fundación Cethus.

After that, Australia continued with its presentation of SORP (Southern Ocean Research Partnership) which began yesterday. This multinational alliance related with the large whales, Sperm whales and Killer whales in the Southern Hemisphere contemplates the execution of scientific studies, and in particular for 2013/2014 take forward the Year of the SORP Whale, in which it is expected to carry out studies from several vessels simultaneously, in a coordinated and integrated way, which would turn the Southern Hemisphere into a giant non-lethal research center. This Australian initiative was very well received and supported by many members of the IWC. Argentina, for its part, as part of the Executive Committee of SORP, announced that it hopes to contribute to the initiative with scientists, as well as vessels. "Argentina is part of this program and it has participated since its inception. It is currently member of the Executive Committee, and we expect a very active participation through our research programs, primarily with regard to the Southern Right whale", said the Alternate Commissioner for Argentina Javier Figueroa.

Finished this topic, the issues related to small cetaceans treated on this year Scientific Committee meeting were discussed. Although many countries understand that the IWC does not have competence over small cetaceans, some concerns were raised about the catch of Dall's porpoises in Japanese waters (which were not answered because Japan understood that this was not the area under which it must respond these issues) and about the catch of dolphins in the Solomon Islands to be sold to aquariums, of concern to the Scientific Committee, which have also been treated by other international fora such as CITES, recently.

After that, the discussions on the Future of the IWC continued, and the presents heard the deliberations of the Scientific Committee about the possibility of separating, temporarily, the meeting of this committee from the IWC Plenary meeting and the possibility of increasing the participation of scientists from developing countries in its meetings.

With this, the current Chairman of the Scientific Committee, Arnie Bjorge ended his period as Chair, being replaced by Palka, from United States, and Kitakado from Japan, as Vice President, for the next period.

In relation to the Conservation Committee, among other matters, the report on ship-strikes was submitted to this Committee. In this respect, the legislation adopted in Argentina was treated. This was prepared by the Prefectura Naval Argentina, as a resul of the incident occurred last year in Puerto Madryn, to reduce the number of collisions between ships and Southern right whales in the area of Peninsula Valdés, Chubut Province.

Later, the United Kingdom announced that it will be possible to conduct a Workshop on Climate Change and Small Cetaceans proposed early, thanks to support from several countries (Australia, United States and Austria) and NGOs (WWF and WDCS). Our country will, once again, play an important role in conservation issues like this as part of the Executive Committee of this workshop.
The Conservation Committee had originally great resistance from some Member Countries, however, its agenda has been increasing over time. "As an observer of the meeting, I must say that I am so satisfied with the work done in this Committee and I am pleased to see that year after year, it has become more relevant within the Commission" said Vanesa Tossenberger.

Although we stress all the progress made in conservation issues during this meeting, as a closure we also note with certain concern the postponement in the treatment and the resolution of many of the most transcendent topics that were on this year’s agenda, and we wonder about the scope and impact of such a measure.

Closing this annual meeting, Morocco offered Agadir as the venue of the 62nd IWC in 2010.

Finished our work in Madeira, we would like to thank the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW), Cetacean Society International (CSI) and Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society (WDCS), who have made possible our presence there.

For more information:
www.cethus.org
www.iwcoffice.org