Maui, Hawaii, April 2009.
More than 200 scientists specializing in the study of marine mammals, along with responsible officials for Marine Protected Areas (MPAs), representatives from GOs, NGOs and experts from more than 40 countries met in Maui, for the First International Conference on Marine Mammal Protected Areas (ICMMPA).

During the five days of conference, assistants worked actively in discussions and analysis on marine protected areas, trying to formulate useful recommendations that were applicable in different regions of the planet. As a result of this work, perhaps one of the most important recommendations was from the researcher and specialist in MPAs, Erich Hoyt: "It must be an urgent global effort to identify and define critical habitat for whales and dolphins" (...) "Then we need to map this information with other species and eco-geographic data to create networks of MPAs in national waters and on the High Seas. It's like creating a sort of global network or world wide web for whales and dolphins not only connecting the animals, but also special places where they live, as well as the local people."

These and other recommendations will be presented at the International Marine Protected Areas Congress  (IMPAC 2) to be held in Washington DC, in late May.

At the regional level, the creation of the new South American River Dolphins Protected Areas Network (SARDPAN) was announced as well as surveys on the habitats of cetaceans in Patagonia Argentina, and an introduction to the proposed MPA for the Ross Sea, Antarctica.

Cethus could attend this conference by presenting three dissertations by Miguel Iñíguez (member of the Standing Committee of this conference and president of the Fundación Cethus) and a poster in which an analysis of the whalewatching activity as a tool to analyze the effectiveness of one MCPA in Patagonia Argentina was shown.

The 2nd International Conference on Marine Mammal Protected Areas will be held in 2012 in France.

Although the results of this conference will be presented in various forums and the corresponding records will be published, we set out some key points and recommendations arising from it here:

• 40% of all MPAs cover less than 100 km2
• 60 % of all MPAs protect coastal cetaceans and their habitats
• 79% of species of cetaceans inhabit or are related to international waters
  
• For 2007, 227 international AMPs have been identified

Key recommendations are:

• That MPAs have goals, design, implementation and continuous monitoring. The importance of beginning to work in MPAs networks was also stressed.
• The importance of declaring the territorial waters as Cetacean Sanctuaries was emphasized.
• A global review to determine cetaceans critical habitats will be carried out. This review will join experts from different disciplines and taxa.
• The possibility of funding and training the MPAs staff in developing countries will be also considered.

For more information about this conference visit: www.icmmpa.org