Whales Working Group
Chair: Mark Simmonds, Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society
Vice Chair: Vacant
Secretary: Louise Hartley
The Whales Working Group works to ensure better protection of cetaceans including through the reform of International Whaling Commission - the international body responsible for regulating the hunting of whales - into a conservation body. The group also addresses other issues relating to cetacean conservation and welfare, such as ocean noise.
Update from the group: January 2012
Link Whales Working Group meeting
The last Whales Working Group meeting took place on 13 December, and included discussion around the group’s 2012 work plan. Priorities for 2012 include: acting to end the whaling programmes in Japan, Norway and Iceland; co-ordinating NGO responses to threats to cetaceans; and working on Link’s priorities for the 64th Annual Meeting of the International Whaling Commission, scheduled to take place in Panama on 11 June to 6 July 2012.
UK cetaceans meeting
The next UK cetaceans meeting will take place in February. Items being discussed include: updates on threats to cetaceans, Marine Conservation Zones and Special Areas of Conservation including Cardigan Bay monitoring. The group also plan to discuss the review of UK Law and the WDCS-led paper, Looking forward to ‘strict protection’: A critical review of the current legal regime for cetaceans in UK waters’.
IWC meeting
A meeting of the IWC like-minded countries is scheduled for 5 March 2011, in London.