Reforming the International Whaling Commission: Indigenous Peoples, the Canadian Problem and the Road Ahead

The International Whaling Commission (iwc) conceals within its history a perennial battle between nations. Since the moratorium on commercial whaling took effect in 1986 both sides of the whaling debate have been unable to substantively advance their cause. This has led many commentators to question its purpose and ability to adapt to issues of modern significance. Given the interdisciplinary breadth of the debate at hand, this article primarily focuses on place of Indigenous peoples within the history of whaling and what role, if any, they will play in the future relevance of the iwc. It is argued that Canada’s withdrawal from the iwc, in the interest of its Indigenous peoples, should generally be regarded as a domestic regulatory success. Nevertheless, the time is ripe for Canada to re-establish itself at the international level with the goal of reforming the state of the Aboriginal Subsistence Whaling exception and perhaps the iwc itself.

Monitoring Nûtimesânân Following the Diversion of Our River: A Community-led Registry in Eeyou Istchee, Northern Québec

The Waskaganish Voluntary Anadromous Cisco Catch Registry is a community-led ex post monitoring programme carried out within the Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) Follow-up Phase of the Rupert River Diversion Hydroelectric Project. The Registry monitors an aboriginal subsistence fishery in the Cree community of Waskaganish. Due to the complexity of the socio-ecological system, predicting the project’s impacts on the fishery at the ex ante stage proved difficult. The programme has allowed the community to monitor changes in the cisco fishery, while also providing a forum for communication and collaboration with the proponent, Hydro-Québec. The programme recognises and incorporates both local ecological knowledge and scientific results from site-specific biological monitoring studies. Overall, the Registry has enhanced stakeholder understanding of project impacts, improved mitigation management decision-making and led to the development of an effective consultation framework. Most importantly, the Registry has helped the fishery to continue into the future despite project impacts.

The International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling and International Whaling Commission – Conservation or Preservation – Can the Gordian Knot be Cut (or Untangled)?

This article analyses the developments in the implementation of the 1946 International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling. It first considers the historical background of the Convention and discusses the shortcomings of the Whaling Convention; then focuses on how various types of whaling covered by the Convention developed according to the changes in attitudes of states – parties to the Whaling Convention along the development of international law and international environmental law. The article covers the developments in commercial whaling; aboriginal (subsistence) whaling; and scientific whaling. It emphasises conflicts between the state-parties to the Convention and also in this context analysis the role of the International Whaling Commission. The complex and conflicting issues concerning whaling are not only of legal but political, cultural and ethical nature. Therefore, it appears that that there is no easy solution to existing conflicts in the near future, as the states appear to be intransigent in their views on all types of whaling, especially scientific whaling and the possibility of the resumption of commercial whaling.

Developing management procedures that are robust to uncertainty: lessons from the International Whaling Commission

Punt, A. E. and Donovan, G. P. 2007. Developing management procedures that are robust to uncertainty: lessons from the International Whaling Commission. – ICES Journal of Marine Science, 64: 603–612. Traditionally, fisheries management advice has been based on stock assessments that considered merely the “best” set of assumptions while uncertainty arising only from observation and process error was quantified, if considered at all. Unfortunately, uncertainty attributable to lack of understanding of the true underlying system and to ineffective implementation may dominate the sources of error that must be accounted for if management is to be successful. The management procedure approach is advocated as the appropriate way to develop management advice for renewable resources. This approach, pioneered by the International Whaling Commission (IWC) Scientific Committee, takes politically agreed management objectives and incorporates all scientific aspects of management including data collection and analysis, development of robust harvest control laws or effort regulations, and monitoring. A primary feature is that uncertainty (including that arising from sources conventionally ignored) is taken into account explicitly through population simulations for a variety of scenarios. The nature of the management procedures developed for commercial and aboriginal subsistence whaling and the processes by which they have been developed is highlighted. We also identify lessons that have been learned from two decades of IWC experience and suggest how these can be applied to other fishery situations.