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Hot topics Friday 19 June 2009 RAPID ROUNDUP: Global Report on Whales – expert response Environment Minister Peter Garrett has released the Global Cetacean Summary Report ahead of the 61st International Whaling Commission meeting in Portugal next week. The report summarises existing scientific knowledge on the global conservation status of cetaceans (whales, dolphins and porpoises) and the threats to their survival, and reviews the economic value of cetaceans and their non-consumptive use through whale watching activities. The full report is available from the Department of the Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts here: http://www.environment.gov.au/coasts/publications/global-cetacean-summary.html Feel free to use these quotes in your stories. Any further comments will be posted here. If you would like to speak to an expert, please don’t hesitate to contact us on (08) 8207 7415 or by email.
Dr Peter Harrison is Director of the Whale Research Centre at Southern Cross University. Peter provided research and analysis to the Global Cetacean Summary Report. “The Global Cetacean Summary Report, launched by Minister Garrett today in preparation for taking that to the International Whaling Commission meeting in Madeira, Portugal next week, is an important document because it highlights just how tenuous many of the species of whales, dolphins and porpoises are. What we’ve discovered is that based on the world’s most up to date and comprehensive accounts with the International Union for Conservation of Nature and the Cetacean Specialist Group, is that many species are threatened. So far, out of the 86 cetacean species that include all the world’s whales, dolphins, and porpoises that are recognised at the moment, 14 of those species, or 16% are listed as threatened, in the vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered categories. Another 5 species are listed as near-threatened, and only 22 species are listed as ‘least concern’, which means that the populations are substantial enough so that we can assume that those species are not faced with extinction in the near future. A really important part of the information shows that more than half of the species are listed as ‘data deficient’, which means we don’t have enough content of scientific information to know whether or not they’re safe and secure, or whether in fact some of those species are also threatened. Many of the species that are currently recognised as threatened have been impacted in previous centuries by over-exploitation through commercial whaling, and that remains a key cause of concern if whaling was to resume and have substantial catch rates again. An increasing problem which is important for nearly all species on the list and for most cetaceans generally, is fishing interaction, and particularly unintentional by-catch, where whales, dolphins and porpoises get entangled in fishing gear and end up dying as a result of that. Fishing by-catch, particularly from gill nets, is critically important in terms of the survival of many of the smaller, in-shore coastal dolphins and porpoise species, and many of the threatened cetaceans have fishing as the primary threat to their existence in the future.”
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CHILEAN EARTHQUAKE AND TSUNAMI CLIMATE CONFUSION - SCIENTISTS ANSWER YOUR QUESTIONS TROPICAL CYCLONES AND CLIMATE FEEDBACK (NATURE) BAN ON MEAT FROM BSE AFFECTED COUNTRIES SET TO END NEW RADIOACTIVE WASTE BILL TO BE INTRODUCED PAN FRYING WITH GAS MAY BE WORSE THAN ELECTRICITY FOR RAISING CANCER RISK PROTECTING SPACE HERITAGE LAUNCH OF NATIONAL SCIENCE COMMUNICATION STRATEGY WATER, CLIMATE CHANGE AND TREES WA DROUGHT UNIQUE FOR 750 YEARS (NATURE GEOSCIENCE) LANCET RETRACTS WAKEFIELD PAPER ON MMR/AUTISM COALITION'S CLIMATE CHANGE POLICY STAIN REPELLENT CHEMICAL LINKED TO THYROID DISEASE EXPERTS RESPOND TO GLACIER MELT DOUBTS ALCOHOL DURING PREGNANCY AFFECTS GENE EXPRESSION EARTHQUAKE IN HAITI TV TIME MAY CUT LIFE SHORT |
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