Research Plan for New Scientific Whale Research Program in the Western North Pacific (NEWREP-NP)

Research Plan for New Scientific Whale Research Program in the western North Pacific (NEWREP-NP) Government of Japan 1 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY a. Primary, Secondary (and, if appropriate Ancillary) objectives and their importance NEWREP-NP has the following Primary and Secondary objectives (see details in section 2.1 and 2.2 of the research plan): Primary Objective I: Contribution to optimizing the establishment of a sustainable catch limit for common minke whales in the coastal waters of Japan. Secondary Objectives I (i): Investigate the spatial and temporal occurrence of J stock common minke whales around Japan, by sex, age and reproductive status; I (ii): Estimate the abundance of the J and O stocks in coastal waters of Japan; I (iii): Verify that there is no structure in the O stock common minke whale in the Pacific side of Japan; and I (iv): Improve RMP trials by incorporating age data in their conditioning. Primary Objective II: Contribution to the RMP/IST for North Pacific sei whale1. Secondary Objectives II (i): Abundance estimates for North Pacific sei whale taking account additional variance; II (ii): Estimation of biological and ecological parameters in North Pacific sei whales for RMP Implementation; II (iii): Study of the pattern of movement of whales of the ‘pelagic stock’ within the feeding grounds and between feeding and breeding grounds; and II (iv): Specification of RMP ISTs for North Pacific sei whale. Ancillary Objective I: Investigation of the influence of environmental changes on whale stocks. Ancillary Objective II: Examination of the effects of pollutants on whales. Ancillary Objective III: Study of distribution, movement and stock structure of large whales with particular emphasis on blue and North Pacific right whales. Primary, Secondary and Ancillary Objectives above are important for the improvement in the conservation and management of whale stocks for the following reasons (see details in section 2.5 of the research plan): - Collection and analyses of relevant data and samples (abundance, stock structure, and biological parameters) will optimize the application of the RMP on the western North Pacific common minke and North Pacific sei whales. - The JARPNII final review workshop, endorsed by the IWC SC, noted that ‘if the ISTs for the western North Pacific common minke whales are to be revised in the future, the age data should be included in the conditioning process’. NEWREP-NP makes use of age data of common minke and sei whales to optimize their management under the RMP (both current and as this will develop in the future). - Those data and samples will contribute to the next Implementation Review in the case of the western North Pacific common minke whales, and the completion of CA and the carrying out of an Implementation in the case of sei whale. - Information on stock structure (biopsy) and abundance trends (sighting surveys) in large baleen whales including the North Pacific right and blue whales, will contribute to understand the pattern of recovery of those whales after past commercial whaling. These studies have been encouraged and recommended by the IWC SC. - Research on the health of the whales is directly related to whale conservation purposes, and studies in this field have been recommended by the IWC SC. 1 It is appreciated that the carrying out of an Implementation of the RMP for sei whales in the North Pacific has yet to be agreed by the Commission. However this is typically a routine step in extending RMP Implementations to further resources, so for simplicity of expression this form of words will be used in this document, but that does not imply that this authorisation will still not have to be given. 2 Primary, Secondary and Ancillary Objectives above are important for the conservation and management of other living marine resources or the ecosystem of which the whale stocks are an integral part for the following reasons (see details in section 2.5 of the research plan): - Under the Ancillary Objective I on environmental changes, several kinds of information will be collected including prey species in the whale’s stomach, prey species in the research area and environmental data. This will contribute to the understanding of the interaction between whales and several other components of the ecosystem, which in turn would contribute to the ecosystem approach of whale resource management. Primary, Secondary and Ancillary Objectives above are important for testing of hypotheses not directly related to the management of living resources for the following reasons (see details in section 2.5 of the research plan): - Information will be provided to characterize the oceanographic structure of the research area. - Oceanographic information will provide insight on whether or not environmental changes are occurring in the research area, particularly in the context of global warming. - There is a great interest in the IWC SC to investigate the effects of marine debris on cetaceans and a workshop focused on this subject has taken place. b. Evaluation of the use of lethal sampling instead of non-lethal methods (by objective) if it requires lethal sampling Lethal sampling is required mainly for Secondary Objectives I (i), I (iv) and II (ii) (sample/data for age determination, body length and sexual maturity); Ancillary Objective I (sample/data on prey composition/consumption and on nutritional condition indices such as blubber thickness, girth and body weight), and Ancillary Objective II (sample/data on blubber, liver, muscle and plasma) (see details in section 3.1.1 of the research plan). A detailed evaluation of the available information on feasibility of lethal and non-lethal techniques led the proponents to the conclusion that the sample/data listed above can be obtained only through lethal methods at this stage (see details in section 3.1.1 of the research plan). During the implementation of the NEWREP-NP research, the proponents will conduct feasibility studies to evaluate several new non-lethal techniques which potentially could be used to address the objectives above: DNA-Methylation for age determination, examination of hormone in blubber for determination of sexual maturity, stable isotope and fatty acids for studies on feeding ecology. Potentially all these techniques could be used based on tissues collected by biopsy sampling. Examination of some technical aspects of the biopsy sampling equipment for common minke whale is itself another of the feasibility studies on non-lethal techniques (see Figure 2 in section 3.1.1 of the research plan). c. Species to be taken and sample size by study area and year (and targeted component of population if applicable) The species to be taken for Primary Objective I is the western North Pacific common minke whale of the O and J stocks (see details in section 3.1.1 of the research plan). The species to be taken for Primary Objective II is the sei whale of the North Pacific pelagic stock (see details in section 3.2.1 of the research plan). NEWREP-NP is planned for a total period of 12 years with a mid-term review after the first six years. The annual sample size of common minke whale in sub-area 11 (Secondary Objective I (i)) for the first 6 years is 47 animals with the sampling starting in 2017 (more detailed estimates of sample size for the objective of studying the temporal trend of the J stock mixing proportion will be made once data have been accumulated in the first six surveys); the annual sample size of common minke whale in sub-areas 7-9 (Secondary Objective I (iv)) is 123 animals with the sampling starting in 2017 (see details of the sample size estimates in common minke whale in Annex 11 of the research plan). 3 The annual sample size of sei whale is 134 animals (Secondary Objective II (ii)) with the sampling starting in 2017 (see details of the sample size estimates in sei whale in Annex 16 of the research plan). d. Summary of effect of catches on targeted stock (s) There is no negative effect on the stocks of common minke whale of the proposed NEWREP-NP catches in sub-areas 11 and 7-9 (see details of the analyses in section 4.1 of the research plan). (Scenarios where that might have been the case are shown to be no longer plausible.) There is no negative effect on the pelagic stock of sei whale of the proposed NEWREP-NP catches (see details of the analyses in section 4.2 of the research plan). e. Summary of co-operative research provisions Scientists from the Institute of Cetacean Research will play the leading role in order to pursue the research activities and achieve the research objectives of NEWREP-NP, in collaboration (particularly regarding environmental change investigations) with scientists from other domestic and/or foreign organization. Annex 20 of the research plan shows a list of collaborating research institutions as well a list of institutions and research programs from which NEWREP-NP will obtain data relevant to its objectives, by research objective of NEWREP-NP. Participation of foreign scientists in the field, laboratory and analytical works is welcomed. To facilitate collaboration, the proponents have developed specific protocols for foreign scientists to apply for participation in field and analytical work (see details in Annex 22 of the research plan). Data obtained by this research program will be shared with members of the IWC SC in accordance with the IWC SC Data Availability Agreement. To facilitate the research collaboration and analyses, databases will be created after each survey under this

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