| 7. Biodiversity and Management |
| 7b. Adaptive management of cetaceans, tunas, swordfish and other marine species |
Cetacean stocks have been managed internationally since establishment of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in 1948. For the first two decades stock management by the Blue Whale Unit (BWU) management system had failed to conserve many cetacean stocks. However the new management procedure (NMP) which incorporated MSY concept and adopted by IWC in 1975, largely improved the conservation and manage of cetacean stocks. To synchronize worldwide conservation trends on cetaceans, the IWC adopted a moratorium decision on commercial whaling 1982. The moratorium on cetacean harvest was a politically enforced decision rather than a decision based on scientific reasons. The moratorium decision lead to further development of the stock management technique and the IWC Scientific Committee developed and agreed to the revised management procedure (RMP). The RMP was adopted by IWC in 1994. The RMP is an example of an adaptive management program, which incorporates feedback from research results to catch limit algorithms. The RMP is very robust to uncertainty in stock information such that lower accuracy in information generates lower catch limits. While commercial whaling based on the RMP has not started, the IWC/SC continues implementation of RMP trials to check performance for targeted stock and species. This sub-session reviews current activities of the RMP operations and points out scientific problems facing the RMP.
Recent evidence suggests that North and South Pacific swordfish stocks maybe mixing in equatorial regions along the eastern Pacific Ocean. Stock structure and boundary delineations will be important input parameters to a North Pacific swordfish stock assessment. Another objective of this sub-session will be to evaluate the stock structure, including non-genetic approaches (e.g., tagging), and develop plausible stock structure scenarios for application in the North Pacific stock assessment. |
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