× Information on this section of ECOLEX comes from the InforMEA Portal which compiled information from MEA Secretariats with the support of the European Union. The accuracy of the information displayed is the responsibility of the originating data source. In case of discrepancy the information as displayed on the respective MEA website prevails. Resolution on Southern Hemisphere Minke Whales and Special Permit Whaling Document type Resolution Reference number 2001-7 Date Jul 23, 2001 SourceUNEP, InforMEA Status Adopted Subject Wild species & ecosystems, Sea Treaty International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (Dec 2, 1946) Meeting 53rd Meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC53) Website crm.iwc.int Abstract Resolution 2001-7 Resolution on Southern Hemisphere Minke Whales and Special Permit Whaling RECOGNISING that the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary may provide a valuable precautionary measure against uncertainties in whale management in the Antarctic; NOTING that the IDCR/SOWER cruises have been a major investment of the budget and time of the commission and the scientific committee for many years; FURTHER NOTING that refinement of the experimental design for these cruises has been a continuous process throughout the past two decades; RECALLING concerns expressed in Resolution 2000-4, regarding appreciably lower abundance estimates for Southern Hemisphere minke whales; FURTHER RECALLING that IWC Scientific Committee agreed in 2000 that there was no agreed estimate for Southern Hemisphere minke whales; NOTING that this year’s Scientific Committee report provided a crude estimate of abundance for Southern Hemisphere minke whales which, although derived from an incomplete data set for the third circumpolar cruise, nevertheless suggests a substantially lower abundance estimate for Southern Hemisphere minke whales; CONCERNED that the Scientific Committee report cannot rule out that the Southern Hemisphere minke whale population may have suffered a precipitous decline over the past decade; NOW THEREFORE THE COMMISSION COMMENDS the Scientific Committee’s proposal to proceed with the completion of its review of minke whale abundance in the Southern Hemisphere; ENDORSES the Scientific Committee’s proposal to present at its 2003 meeting revised estimates of abundance and trends of Southern Hemisphere minke whales, using improved methodology developed during the course of the review, for the full three circumpolar sets of IDCR/SOWER surveys; REQUESTS the Scientific Committee to provide to the Commission at IWC 54: (i) a list of plausible hypotheses that may explain this apparent population decline, (ii) the possible implications that such a decline in abundance may have for the management of minke whales in the Southern Hemisphere, and for ecologically-related species, in particular other cetaceans, and the state of the Antarctic marine ecosystem; STRONGLY URGES the Government of Japan to halt the lethal takes of minke whales conducted under the JARPA programme, at least until the Scientific Committee has reported to the Commission on the impacts of the JARPA programme on the stocks of minke whales in Areas IV and V.