Resolution on Jarpa

Resolution 2007-1
RESOLUTION ON JARPA
WHEREAS paragraph 7(b) of the Schedule establishes a sanctuary in the Southern Ocean;
RECALLING that the Commission has repeatedly requested Contracting Parties to refrain from issuing special
permits for research involving the killing of whales within the Southern Ocean Sanctuary, has expressed deep
concern at continuing lethal research within the Southern Ocean Sanctuary, and has also recommended that
scientific research involving the killing of cetaceans should only be permitted where critically important research
needs are addressed;
CONSCIOUS that the Scientific Committee last year convened a workshop to analyse the results of JARPA 1,
which is reported in SC/59/REP 1;
NOTING that the Workshop agreed that none of the goals of JARPA 1 had been reached, and that the results of
the JARPA 1 programme are not required for management under the RMP;
FURTHER NOTING that the Government of Japan has authorised a new special permit programme in the
Antarctic, JARPA II, in which the take of minke whales has been more than doubled, and fin whales and
humpback whales have been added to the list of targeted species;
CONCERNED that fin whales in the Southern Hemisphere are currently classified as endangered, and that
humpback whales in the JARPA II research area may include individuals from depleted breeding populations
overwintering in the waters of certain Pacific Islands;
CONVINCED that the aims of JARPA II do not address critically important research needs;
NOW THEREFORE THE COMMISSION
CALLS UPON the Government of Japan to address the 31 recommendations listed in Appendix 4 of Annex O
of the Scientific Committee report relating to the December 2006 review of the JARPA I programme to the
satisfaction of the Scientific Committee;
FURTHER CALLS UPON the Government of Japan to suspend indefinitely the lethal aspects of JARPA II
conducted within the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary.