IWC News Archive

The latest report from the IWC covers the breadth of work across the Commission over the last two-year period.

In order to produce a document that is short and accessible it is not possible to include every project in which the IWC has been involved but I hope you will find it a useful summary and a showcase for the tangible progress made by many of our work programmes over the last two years.

The report is designed to be easy to read on-screen and also easy to print should anyone wish to do so. Please note it is best downloaded and viewed or printed as a PDF rather than through a web browser which may distort some of the formatting.

I hope you find this useful and look forward to seeing many of you at IWC69 in a few weeks.

In July 2024, the IWC's Bycatch Mitigation Initiative hosted two training workshops on the Bycatch Risk Assessments (ByRA) toolbox in Colombia. 

ByRA is a Geographic Information System (GIS)-based toolkit which allows assessment and visualisation of bycatch risk using any amount or type of data available. This enables identification of critical areas for further research and/or immediate management actions. The IWC has supported ByRA capacity building workshops in several countries and the latest training in Colombia covered both river dolphins and marine species.

The first Colombia workshop focused on the South American river dolphin which is the subject of an IWC Conservation Management Plan. The multi-national event included participants from Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela who gathered at the Omacha Foundation's Research Station in the beautiful town of Puerto Nariño.

In addition to learning how to use the ByRA toolbox, the group exchanged experiences on available bycatch data and the challenges of its analysis in river environments. Participants were also privileged to watch the pink river dolphin (Inia geoffrensis) and the Tucuxi (Sotalia fluviatilis) swimming in the Amazonian waters around the village.

The second workshop was held in Bogota and focused on how to use the ByRA toolbox and apply it to marine cetaceans interacting with a variety of Colombian fisheries. This workshop was organized in collaboration with the Directorate of Coastal Marine Affairs and Aquatic Resources (DAMCRA) of the Colombian Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development (MinAmbiente).  The event  was attended by a total of 26 researchers and managers from non-governmental organisations and environmental agencies across Colombia.

(Dirección de Parques Nacionales Naturales, INVEMAR, DIMAR, AUNAP, CORPOURABÁ, CORPOGUAJIRA, CARDIQUE, CORPOURABÁ, CORALINA, CODECHOCÓ, CVC, CRA, Universidad Nacional, WWF, Fundación Pesca Limpia, Fundación Malpelo  y Otros Ecosistemas Marinos, Fundación Marviva, GIZ, Madreagua, Fundación Macuáticos, R&E Ocean Community Conservation Foundation, Caribbean-Wide Orca Project).

Both workshops were delivered by IWC Bycatch Expert Panel member (Dr Ellen Hines) who co-created the Bycatch Risk Assessment (ByRA) toolkit, and her assistant (Fernanda Barilari).  The workshop was organised by the IWC Bycatch Co-ordinator who also provided assistance for Spanish and Portuguese speaking participants. Funding for both events was generously funded by the US Government’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Two IWC work programmes will share expertise and pool resources in a joint workshop later this month.

The SC report on a typically busy and wide-ranging meeting.

The IWC’s Journal of Cetacean Research & Management (JCRM) plans to launch a new Special Issue on cetacean tagging in 2024, and is calling for papers on key topics.

 In March, a small group of Scientific Committee specialists will gather in Seattle, USA, to complete the next stage in a comprehensive assessment of North Pacific humpback whales.

Comprehensive assessments provide the Commission with information on the current status of a particular whale population within a particular region, usually an ocean basin. The assessment tells the Commission whether that population is recovered, recovering, or cause for concern. It also identifies any factors that may affect the current status.

The process has several stages, beginning with a review of existing information and identification of key data gaps.

Understanding the structure of the population is a key component of this stage. Just as one species may exist in a number of different populations around the world, the population in one ocean basin may be divided into different sub-populations, also known as ‘stocks.’ Even within a relatively small area, some stocks may be healthy whilst others are not, so it is important to understand, as far as possible, how the stocks are structured. It is hard to establish stock structure with complete certainty and so scientists often recommend several alternative hypotheses, each of which is incorporated into the assessment.

Other information required to conduct the assessment includes:

- estimates of the current and past size of the population

- estimates of current and past removals from the population: deaths caused by impacts   such as hunting, bycatch or ship strikes
- biological information such as growth rates, age of sexual maturity and male/female ratios

- environmental information

This information is obtained from a wide range of data sources such as genetic research, satellite tagging programmes, sightings surveys and photo-ID catalogues. Some of this information may exist already but much must be commissioned as part of the Comprehensive Assessment.

All available data are collated and used to develop a series of plausible scenarios relating to recommended hypotheses on stock structure; these are tested using computer modelling. Population models are developed based on each stock structure hypothesis. The analytical approach also includes tests to incorporate levels of uncertainty, inevitable in work that is reliant on many different types of inputs.

The Comprehensive Assessment of North Pacific Humpback whales began in 2016. Work since then includes analyses of genetic data and abundance, and use of an automated photo-ID algorithm to facilitate a large-scale photo-ID matching exercise. A number of refinements have been made as new data became available. New satellite tag research is also now being incorporated, which analyses data from tags deployed across both breeding and feeding grounds of the North Pacific humpbacks over a thirty year period.

The group has established and recommended two hypotheses for stock structure in breeding areas and two separate hypotheses for stock structure in feeding areas. The workshop in March will continue the computer modelling work and report to the next meeting of the Scientific Commission which begins in April.

In Auckland, New Zealand this February, the IWC will hold the first in a new series of workshops, reviewing dolphin and porpoise species in the South Pacific Island region.