Resolution 1998-6

RECALLING the directives by the Commission to the Scientific Committee and the Standing Working Group
on Environmental Concerns (SWGEC) to consider and act on all priority areas for assessing the impact of
environmental change on cetaceans;
RECALLING that at the 49TH Annual Meeting the Commission adopted a resolution urging the Scientific
Committee to produce detailed scientific proposals for future work on environmental concerns on a multi-
annual basis;
NOTING that at its 50th meeting the Scientific Committee reiterated its support for the two major
environmental research programmes initiated within the SWGEC, which were originally proposed at the 49th
meeting of the IWC Scientific Committee and subsequently endorsed by the Commission:
i. a collaborative, multidisciplinary, multinational programme in Southern Ocean with CCAMLR and
Southern Ocean GLOBEC; and
ii. a multidisciplinary programme of work to investigate the adverse effects of pollutants on cetaceans.
NOTING FURTHER that at this 50th meeting of the International Whaling Commission, the Scientific
Committee agreed to an intersessional work plan that includes the following additional initiatives:
I. the development of a proposal for a workshop on habitat degradation; and
II. the identification of issues and activities related to assessing the environmental effects on Arctic cetaceans
(IWC/50/4, 12.6)
NOTING FURTHER that the Scientific Committee has identified eight priority topics that it hopes to address:
climate/environmental change; chemical pollution; physical and biological habitat degradation; effects of
fisheries; ozone depletion, and UV-B radiation; Arctic issues; disease and mortality events; and the impact of
noise.
NOW THEREFORE the Commission:
AGREES to fund activities to be conducted in association with these programmes of research by drawing if
necessary from the Commission’s reserves;
INSTRUCTS the Secretariat in drawing up the provisional budget for 1999/2000 to make provisions for
expenditure of £100,000 from the Commission’s reserves to fund selected proposals recommended from the
Scientific Committee under these programmes, as well as to support Invited Participants with relevant
expertise as necessary;
AGREES to consider at its 51st Annual Meeting, the establishment of a dedicated Environment Research Fund
to facilitate research on environmental change and cetaceans; and the attendance at the Scientific Committee
and other related meetings of Invited Participants with relevant expertise in the priority areas of the Standing
Working Group on Environmental Concerns.