In many ways, the biggest success of IWC69 was the consensus renewal of quotas for Aboriginal Subsistence Whaling. This was an unequivocal decision, taken on the first day of the meeting.

Aboriginal Subsistence Whaling is of great nutritional and cultural value to some indigenous communities, mainly in remote Arctic regions.  This type of whaling does not seek to maximise catches or profit, and the catches are shared amongst the community.

The IWC objectives for management of Aboriginal Subsistence Whaling are to ensure that hunted whale populations are maintained at (or brought back to) healthy levels, and to enable native people to hunt whales according to their nutritional and cultural requirements in the long term.

In 2018, the Commission endorsed a new process to automatically extend quotas in six year blocks if three conditions are met:

• the quotas do not change 
• the Scientific Committee advises that these quotas will not harm the whale populations
• the Commission determines that the ASW governments have complied with the agreed timeline and the information provided represents a status quo continuation of the hunt.

As set out in the agreed timeline, the hunting communities confirmed early in the year that the quotas would not change and would 'roll-over' from the previous quota block. Following its meeting in May, the Scientific Committee advised that the rolled-over catch quotas will not harm the targeted populations.

Scientific Advice 

The Scientific Committee has developed a robust procedure to assess the sustainability of the hunts.
The method to calculate safe catches is called a Strike Limit Algorithm (SLA).  Over recent years, an extensive programme of work by the Scientific Committee has produced six SLAs appropriate for the hunted whale populations. For each population, information is gathered, assessed and regularly reviewed on population structure, abundance and trends in abundance, as well as factors such as reproductive rates and environmental conditions, creating a ‘parameter space.’ Computer simulations are then used to test the SLA within the established parameter space. The process in ongoing with new information received and assessed, and reviews every 5/6 years.

A particular focus at this year’s Scientific Committee meeting was an Unusual Mortality Event (UME) of North Pacific gray whales between 2019 and 2023. All relevant data was reviewed and led the Scientific Committee to conclude that, while UMEs are occurring more frequently, new abundance estimates coupled with further modelling showed that the existing SLA is robust to recent and future UMEs, and the proposed quota will not harm the population.

At IWC69, the Commission received confirmation that the first two conditions had been met. The Commission agreed there had been compliance with the timeline, which was introduced to improve the clarity and transparency of the process, and that the information provided represented a status quo continuation of the hunt. The quota roll-over into a new six-year block was then endorsed by consensus, marking the successful implementation of the new process.

The Chair and representatives of the hunting communities noted the significance of consensus on this issue, its difficult history, and the many people whose contributions had enabled the Commission to reach this point.  Reflecting on the outcomes of the meeting as it drew to a close four days later, the Acting Chair,
Dr Nick Gales of Australia, observed that ‘we remained true to the hunters and communities of our ASW countries and rolled over quotas without vote or rancour, the strike limits that play such a major part of their lives. This one action represents a real step in the re-establishment of trust between ASW and commission. If this were the only achievement it would have been a major success.’