CANBERRA (XINHUA) - All of Australia's whale species are now protected by the Australian law following Monday's announcement that the Sei and Fin whales have gained legislative protection. Australian Environment Minister Robert Hill said the decision would add impetus to Australia's push for a global whale sanctuary at the International Whaling Commission meeting in Oman in May.
It is expected that whaling countries like Japan will oppose such a sanctuary at the meeting.
"Our efforts to conserve our own whales strengthen our push for a global whale sanctuary," Hill said in a statement.
Listing the Sei and Fin whales as vulnerable species under the Endangered Species Act, which meant they could not be killed, traded or moved and that the Australian federal government must develop recovery plans for them, was the most effective way to ensure their survival, he said.
"Australia's populations of the Sei whale have declined by 75 percent in the past 40 years alone, and there are estimated to be only 25,000 of this species of whale remaining," the minister said.
Populations of the Fin whale have seen an even greater decline in numbers. They were originally estimated at 500,000 prior to the 1960s and have been depleted to a mere 25,000.
From: Australian Marine Conservation Society <amcs@ozemail.com.au>
We would like to clarify a few points made with regard to the statement on March 16th that all Australian whales are protected by the Australian law. This could be misleading, as it suggests that they are all protected under the Endangered Species Act, (which is referred to in the same statement). All 43 species of cetaceans found in Australian waters are in fact protected under the Commonwealth Whale Protection Act 1980, which prohibits killing, injuring, taking, capturing or interfering with cetaceans. However, it is only the Blue, Southern Right, Humpback and now the Sei and Fin whales that are protected under the Commonwealth Endangered Species Act.
Environmental organisations, like ours, lobbied for a listing for the Sei and Fin under this reasonably robust act, because it includes a statutory obligation to develop a recovery plan. This will look at threats, other than killing, which is at present not an issue to these species and identify ways to mitigate them. These include depletion of food stocks through commercial fishing, shipping strikes, oil spills and toxic pollutants, entanglement in fishing gear and acoustic pollution, amongst others. Other cetacean species that we have reason to be concerned over at present, include the Indo-Pacific humpbacked dolphin and the Irrawaddy dolphin. As soon as we have sufficient data, we will be nominating these for inclusion under the Act.
Bill Foster
Australian Marine Conservation Society
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