SMALL CETACEANS, BIG PROBLEMS A global review of the impacts of hunting on small whales, dolphins and porpoises A report by Sandra Altherr and Nicola Hodgins Edited by Sue Fisher, Kate O’Connell, D.J. Schubert, and Dave Tilford SMALL CETACEANS, BIG PROBLEMS A global review of the impacts of hunting on small whales, dolphins and porpoises A report by Sandra Altherr and Nicola Hodgins Edited by Sue Fisher, Kate O’Connell, D.J. Schubert, and Dave Tilford ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The authors would like to thank the following people and institutions for providing helpful input, information and photos: Stefan Austermühle and his organisation Mundo Azul, Conservation India, The Dolphin Project, Astrid Fuchs, Dr. Lindsay Porter, Vivian Romano, and Koen Van Waerebeek. Special thanks also to Ava Rinehart and Alexandra Alberg of the Animal Welfare Institute for the design and layout of this report. GLOSSARY AAWP CMS IMARPE NMFS Abidjan Aquatic Wildlife Partnership Convention on the Conservation of Instituto Del Mar Del Peru National Marine Fisheries Service Migratory Species of Wild Animals ACCOBAMS IUU NOAA Agreement on the Conservation COSWIC Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated National Oceanic and Atmospheric of Cetaceans of the Black Sea, Commission on the Status of Fishing Administration Mediterranean Sea and Contiguous Endangered Wildlife in Canada Atlantic Area IUCN SC CPW International Union for Conservation Scientific Committee (International AQUATIC WILD MEAT Collaborative Partnership on of Nature Whaling Commission) The products derived from aquatic Sustainable Wildlife Management mammals and sea turtles that are IWC SMALL CETACEANS used for subsistence food and DFO International Whaling Commission Small and large cetaceans is traditional uses, including shells, Federal Department of Fisheries & neither a biological, nor political bones and organs, as well as bait for Oceans Ministry (Canada) JCNB classification, but has evolved Greenlandic-Canadian Joint fisheries becoming a widely used semantic DWC Commission for Narwhal and Beluga term. For the purpose of this report, ASCOBANS Department of Wildlife Conservation small cetacean refers to all toothed MEA Agreement on the Conservation of whales except sperm whales. Multilateral Environmental Small Cetaceans of the Baltic, North ECS Eastern Chukchi Sea Agreements East Atlantic, Irish and North Seas UNEP United Nations Environmental EBS MMC AWBC Programme Eastern Bering Sea Marine Mammal Commission Alaska Beluga Whale Commission UNESCO EHB MOU CBD United Nations Educational, East Hudson Bay Memoranda of Understanding Convention on Biological Diversity Scientific and Cultural Organization EU NAMMCO CDNP European Union North Atlantic Marine Mammal Conkovati-Douli National Park Commission ICRW CITES International Convention for the Convention on International Trade in NDF Regulation of Whaling Non-Detriment Finding Endangered Species of Wild Fauna and Flora TABLE OF CONTENTS SEC. 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY 2 3.5.6 MYANMAR 33 3.5.7 PAKISTAN 33 SEC. 2 INTRODUCTION 3 3.5.8 PHILIPPINES 34 SEC. 3 SMALL CETACEAN HUNTING – 3.5.9 SRI LANKA 35 A GLOBAL PROBLEM 5 3.5.10 TAIWAN, PROVINCE OF CHINA 36 3.1 ARCTIC REGION 5 3.5.11 VIETNAM 37 3.1.1 ALASKA/USA 5 3.6 OCEANIA 38 3.1.2 CANADA 6 3.6.1 KIRIBATI 38 3.1.3 GREENLAND 8 3.6.2 SOLOMON ISLANDS 39 3.1.4 RUSSIAN FEDERATION 9 3.2 EUROPE 10 SEC. 4 SMALL CETACEANS IN INTERNATIONAL CONVENTIONS 40 3.2.1 FAROE ISLANDS 11 4.1 INTERNATIONAL CONVENTION ON THE 3.2.2 ITALY 13 REGULATION OF WHALING 40 3.2.3 TURKEY 13 4.2 CONVENTION ON THE CONSERVATION OF 3.3 LATIN AMERICA AND THE CARIBBEAN 14 MIGRATORY SPECIES OF WILD ANIMALS 40 3.3.1 BRAZIL 14 4.3 CONVENTION ON INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN ENDANGERED SPECIES OF WILD FAUNA 3.3.2 COLOMBIA 16 AND FLORA 41 3.3.3 GUATEMALA 16 4.4 CONVENTION ON BIOLOGICAL DIVERSITY 42 3.3.4 PERU 17 4.5 BERN CONVENTION 43 3.3.5 VENEZUELA 18 4.6 ABIDJAN CONVENTION/ABIDJAN AQUATIC 3.3.6 WIDER CARIBBEAN REGION 19 WILDLIFE PARTNERSHIP 43 3.4 AFRICA 20 SEC. 5 SMALL CETACEANS AND FOOD SECURITY 44 3.4.1 CAMEROON 21 5.1 CONTAMINATION BURDEN IN SMALL 3.4.2 GAMBIA, THE 21 CETACEANS AND HUMAN HEALTH ISSUES 44 3.4.3 GHANA 22 5.2 SMALL CETACEAN HUNTS DRIVEN BY INDUSTRIAL FISHING 47 3.4.4 GUINEA-BISSAU 22 3.4.5 MADAGASCAR 23 SEC. 6 ECOLOGICAL AND WELFARE IMPACTS OF THE HUNTS 48 3.4.6 MAURITANIA 23 6.1 SMALL CETACEAN HUNTS WORLDWIDE 48 3.4.7 MOZAMBIQUE 24 6.2 SUSTAINABILITY OF THE HUNT 52 3.4.8 NIGERIA 24 6.3 WELFARE CONCERNS FOR SMALL 3.4.9 REPUBLIC OF CONGO 25 CETACEAN HUNTS 55 3.4.10 SENEGAL 25 SEC. 7 CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS 56 3.4.11 TANZANIA 26 7.1 CONCLUSIONS 56 3.4.12 TOGO 26 7.2 RECOMMENDATIONS TO RANGE STATES 57 3.5 ASIA 27 7.3 RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE IWC 58 3.5.1 INDIA 28 7.4 RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE CMS 58 3.5.2 INDONESIA 29 7.5 RECOMMENDATIONS TO CITES 59 3.5.3 JAPAN 30 7.6 RECOMMENDATIONS TO THE CBD 59 3.5.4 KOREA, REPUBLIC OF 31 3.5.5 MALAYSIA 32 SEC. 8 REFERENCES 60 SECTION 1 // EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The hunting of small cetaceans (i.e., all toothed whales, et al. 2014; Debrah et al. 2010). Mintzer et al. (2018) except the sperm whale) for food or fishing bait is far warn that dolphin hunts may expand even further in more widespread than most people realise. While in some regions. recent years public attention has focused on hunts in Japan (specifically in Taiji) and the Danish Faroe Islands, The reasons for killing small cetaceans differ from small cetaceans are deliberately killed at similar or country to country; some species have been hunted even higher levels in several other regions. Overall, by indigenous people in a number of places around approximately 100,000 small whales, dolphins, and the world for millennia. In other regions, especially porpoises are intentionally killed each year worldwide. in parts of West Africa, Asia, and in other areas In most cases, these are unregulated, or even illegal, where industrialised and often illegal, unreported, hunts. Typically, they are unsustainable and poorly and unregulated (IUU) fishing is overexploiting fish documented and their impact on populations is resources, small cetaceans are increasingly hunted as unknown. Where legislation is in place, appropriate aquatic wild meat3 to meet the protein demands of a control and rigorous enforcement measures are often growing human population. lacking. This report aims to give a global overview of the scale of small cetacean hunts, the number of individuals An increasingly common trend is the evolution from and species targeted, and their ecological impact. opportunistic use of dolphins entangled in fishing nets (‘bycatch’), to the growth of a market for their meat as By far, the world’s largest kill of small cetaceans is in food or fishing bait and the development of a targeted Peru, where up to 15,000 dolphins are killed annually hunt to meet the ensuing demand. Some species are to be used as bait in shark fisheries. Other countries killed because they are perceived as competitors for (see Section 3) where direct takes of more than commercial fish species. In many areas, small cetacean 1,000 individuals annually occur are Brazil, Canada, hunting is unselective—no specific species, size, or Greenland,1 Ghana, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, sex is targeted; instead, the most easily accessible— Japan, Madagascar, Malaysia, Nigeria, Republic of individuals are hunted, making river and coastal Korea, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka, Venezuela, and dolphins especially vulnerable to over-exploitation. Taiwan, Province of China/Chinese Taipei (henceforth Taiwan (PRC)). Up to several hundred small cetaceans Given the high levels of contaminants that accumulate are hunted each year in the United States (Alaska), in the tissues of small cetaceans, the precarious Cameroon, Colombia, Faroe Islands,2 Guinea Bissau, conservation status of many populations, and their Kiribati, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines, Papua slow rate of reproduction, they are not a safe and New Guinea, Senegal, St. Lucia, St. Vincent and the sustainable choice to provide food security (see Grenadines, Vietnam, and Tanzania. Sections 5 and 6). However, as fish stocks decline globally due to commercial over-exploitation, small While the deliberate hunting of small cetaceans is cetacean hunts are likely to further increase unless declining in some areas, in most regions the killing concerted international and domestic efforts are taken of small cetaceans has dramatically increased over to protect both cetacean and fish stocks. To facilitate the last two decades both in terms of number of such efforts, we include recommendations (see individuals and range of species targeted. In 2004, Section 7) to range states and relevant international a report for the Convention on the Conservation of organisations, such as the International Whaling Migratory Species of Wild Animals (CMS) listed 45 Commission (IWC), on how to stop the escalation of small cetacean species as threatened by directed small cetacean hunts. catches (Culik 2004) while this report identifies 56 species that are actively hunted. Moreover, many recent studies report an increase in the number of 1 A self-governing overseas administrative division of the Kingdom of Denmark. animals killed in small cetacean hunts with regard to 2 A self-governing overseas administrative division of the Kingdom of Denmark. 3 While the terms ‘marine bushmeat’ or ‘aquatic wild meat’ can be used numbers of individuals taken (e.g., da Silva et al. 2018; interchangeably, this report will use the term aquatic wild meat as appropriate. Cunha et al. 2015; Salinas et al. 2014; Van Waerebeek This is the term used by the CMS.