7th Meeting of the Parties to ASCOBANS MOP7/Doc.5-04 (O) Brighton, United Kingdom, 22-24 October 2012 Dist. 21 September 2012 Agenda Item 5.7 Review of Implementation of the ASCOBANS Triennial Work Plan Relations with Other Bodies Document 5-04 Report of the Scientific Committee of the IWC 2012 Action Requested Take note Submitted by IWC Secretariat NOTE: IN THE INTERESTS OF ECONOMY, DELEGATES ARE KINDLY REMINDED TO BRING THEIR OWN COPIES OF DOCUMENTS TO THE MEETING IWC/64/Rep1rev1 Report of the Scientific Committee Panama City, Panama, 11-23 June 2012 International Whaling Commission, Panama City, 2012 Scientific Committee Report Contents 1-3 INTRODUCTORY ITEMS ........................................................................................................................................................................ 3 4. COOPERATION WITH OTHER ORGANISATIONS................................................................................................................................ 5 5. REVISED MANAGEMENT PROCEDURE (RMP) – GENERAL ISSUES (see also Annex D) ............................................................. 11 5.1 Complete the MSY rates review ........................................................................................................................................................... 11 5.2 Finalise the approach for evaluating proposed amendments to the CLA .............................................................................................. 11 5.3 Evaluate the Norwegian proposal for amending the CLA ..................................................................................................................... 11 5.4 Modify the ‘CatchLimit’ program to allow variance-covariance matrices ........................................................................................... 11 5.5 Update requirements and guidelines for conducting surveys and Implementations ............................................................................. 12 5.6 Evaluate the optimisation method used when conditioning trials ......................................................................................................... 12 5.7 List of abundance estimates and their recommended uses ................................................................................................................... 12 6. RMP – PREPARATIONS FOR IMPLEMENTATION ............................................................................................................................. 12 6.1 Western North Pacific Bryde’s whales ................................................................................................................................................. 12 6.2 North Atlantic fin whales ..................................................................................................................................................................... 12 6.3 North Pacific common minke whales (continue Implementation) ........................................................................................................ 13 6.4 North Atlantic common minke whales ................................................................................................................................................. 18 6.5 North Atlantic sei whales ..................................................................................................................................................................... 19 7. ESTIMATION OF BYCATCH AND OTHER HUMAN-INDUCED MORTALITY (BC) .................................................................... 19 7.1 Collaboration with FAO on collation of relevant fisheries data ........................................................................................................... 19 7.2 Estimation of bycatch mortality of large whales .................................................................................................................................. 19 7.3 Estimation of risk and rates of entanglement........................................................................................................................................ 20 7.4 Review progress on including information in National Progress Reports ............................................................................................ 20 7.5 Ship strikes ........................................................................................................................................................................................... 20 8. ABORIGINAL SUBSISTENCE WHALING MANAGEMENT PROCEDURE (AWMP)..................................................................... 21 8.1 Complete Implementation Review of eastern North Pacific gray whales with an emphasis on the PCFG ........................................... 21 8.2 Complete Implementation Review of Bering-Chuckchi-Beaufort Seas bowhead whales ..................................................................... 27 8.3 Continue work on developing SLAs for the Greenlandic hunts (Annex E, Item 4).............................................................................. 28 8.4 Guidelines for Implementation Reviews .............................................................................................................................................. 29 8.5 Scientific aspects of an aboriginal whaling scheme (AWS) ................................................................................................................. 29 8.6. Conversion factors for edible products for Greenland hunts ............................................................................................................... 30 9. ABORIGINAL SUBSISTENCE WHALING MANAGEMENT ADVICE ............................................................................................... 30 9.1 Eastern Canada and West Greenland bowhead whales ........................................................................................................................ 31 9.2 Eastern North Pacific gray whales........................................................................................................................................................ 32 9.3 Bering-Chukchi-Beaufort (B-C-B) Seas stock of bowhead whales ...................................................................................................... 33 9.4 Common minke whales off West Greenland ........................................................................................................................................ 34 9.5 Common minke whales off East Greenland ......................................................................................................................................... 34 9.6 Fin whales off West Greenland ............................................................................................................................................................ 34 9.7 Humpback whales off West Greenland ................................................................................................................................................ 34 9.8 Humpback whales off St Vincent and The Grenadines ........................................................................................................................ 35 10. WHALE STOCKS ................................................................................................................................................................................... 35 10.1 Antarctic minke whales (Annex G) .................................................................................................................................................... 35 10.2. Southern Hemisphere humpback whales ........................................................................................................................................... 40 10.3. Southern Hemisphere blue whales .................................................................................................................................................... 43 10.4 Western North Pacific gray whales .................................................................................................................................................... 45 10.5 Southern Hemisphere right whales ..................................................................................................................................................... 47 10.6 Other stocks of right whales and small stock of bowhead whales ...................................................................................................... 50 10.7 Arabian Sea humpback whales ........................................................................................................................................................... 51 10.8 Cruises ................................................................................................................................................................................................ 52 Scientific Committee Report 1 03/07/12 10.9 Progress towards an in-depth assessment of North Pacific sei whales ............................................................................................... 54 11. STOCK DEFINITION .............................................................................................................................................................................. 54 11.1 Guidelines for DNA data quality and genetic analyses .....................................................................................................................