South Pacific States To Sign Whale, Dolphin Conservation Agreement

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South Pacific States To Sign Whale, Dolphin Conservation Agreement

 

September 14, 2006 — By Ray Lilley, Associated Press

WELLINGTON, New Zealand — A group of South Pacific nations will sign an

agreement to help protect and conserve whale and dolphin species, New Zealand

Conservation Minister Chris Carter said Thursday.

 

The memorandum, developed under the international Convention on Migratory

Species, is due to be adopted Friday at a ministerial meeting of the South

Pacific Regional Environment Program in the New Caledonian capital, Noumea, he

said.

 

Up to 11 South Pacific nations were likely to sign the regional agreement, with

a minimum of four signatories needed to bring it into force, Carter said.

 

Among South Pacific states likely to take part are Australia, New Zealand, Fiji,

Cook Islands, Tonga, Samoa and Vanuatu, but a spokesman for the minister, Nick

Maling, declined to confirm those expected to sign.

 

Vanuatu was the latest to join several South Pacific states in declaring a whale

sanctuary in its exclusive economic zone, stretching up to 320 kilometers (200

miles) from its shoreline.

 

The memorandum commits signatory states to a range of voluntarily initiatives to

protect and preserve whales and dolphins, including unspecified threat reduction

measures and habitat protection.

 

It calls on participants to:

 

--recognize that their survival depends on their conservation over a wide area

and in a range of marine and coastal habitats;

 

--conduct socially and economically important activities like fishing and

tourism in an ecologically sustainable manner;

 

--review, enact or update laws to conserve cetaceans;

 

--implement conservation measures where they do not already exist for vulnerable

cetacean populations, and

 

--implement an action plan to reduce threats to the mammals, protect habitats

and migratory ocean corridors and respond to strandings and entanglement of the

mammals.

 

Carter said there is a high level of support among Pacific people for conserving

whales and dolphins.

 

" It doesn't stop Japanese whaling, but ... it enhances the protection

particularly of dolphin species, which aren't so migratory, " he told National

Radio.

 

" Until now the primary international forum for discussing whale conservation has

been the International Whaling Commission, which is widely regarded in the

Pacific as outdated, deadlocked and expensive for poorer countries to join and

attend, " he said in a statement.

 

The memorandum, under the Convention on Migratory Species, " provides a new, more

attractive and affordable alternative to the IWC for Pacific countries

interested (in) pursuing whale conservation, " he added.

 

Source: Associated Press

 

 

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