109
8
Whaling Models for
Cetacean Conservation
Mark S. Boyce
The moot point is, whether Leviathan can long endure so wide a chase, and so remorseless a
havoc; whether he must not at last be exterminated from the waters, and the last whale, like
the last man, smoke his last pipe, and then himself evaporate in the final puff.
—Herman Melville, Moby Dick (1851)
Introduction
Norway recently resumed commercial whaling, and Japan may follow suit. The
Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), the body
charged with the management of large whales, has put forward a quantitative
management plan to set quotas for the commercial harvest of whales. This plan is
the result of 6 years of modeling efforts by numerous teams of scientists. My
objective is to review the historical background for the modeling, describe the
final accepted model, and question its adequacy in the broader context of ecosystem management.
Historical Context
The near extirpation of the world’s great baleen whales (rorquals) during the 20th
century ranks among the most tragic consequences of human technology. In
particular, global stocks (populations) of Blue (Balaenoptera musculus), Fin (B.
physalus), Sei (B. borealis), Humpback (Megaptera novaeangliae), Bowhead
(Balaena mysticetus), and Right (Eubalaena glacialis and E. australis) Whales
were severely depleted (Table 8.1). Since 1946, monitoring and regulation of
whaling have been the purview of the IWC, presently comprising 40 membernations including several that have never had commercial whaling interests.
Initially, gross quotas for whale harvest were set in Blue Whale units whereby
catches were scaled according to the value of the whales (e.g., two Fin Whales
or six Sei Whales were equivalent to one Blue Whale unit) (Gambell 1976).
Quotas were set high enough that stocks were rapidly depleted. In 1975, a new
8
Whaling Models for
Cetacean Conservation
Mark S. Boyce
The moot point is, whether Leviathan can long endure so wide a chase, and so remorseless a
havoc; whether he must not at last be exterminated from the waters, and the last whale, like
the last man, smoke his last pipe, and then himself evaporate in the final puff.
—Herman Melville, Moby Dick (1851)
Introduction
Norway recently resumed commercial whaling, and Japan may follow suit. The
Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission (IWC), the body
charged with the management of large whales, has put forward a quantitative
management plan to set quotas for the commercial harvest of whales. This plan is
the result of 6 years of modeling efforts by numerous teams of scientists. My
objective is to review the historical background for the modeling, describe the
final accepted model, and question its adequacy in the broader context of ecosystem management.
Historical Context
The near extirpation of the world’s great baleen whales (rorquals) during the 20th
century ranks among the most tragic consequences of human technology. In
particular, global stocks (populations) of Blue (Balaenoptera musculus), Fin (B.
physalus), Sei (B. borealis), Humpback (Megaptera novaeangliae), Bowhead
(Balaena mysticetus), and Right (Eubalaena glacialis and E. australis) Whales
were severely depleted (Table 8.1). Since 1946, monitoring and regulation of
whaling have been the purview of the IWC, presently comprising 40 membernations including several that have never had commercial whaling interests.
Initially, gross quotas for whale harvest were set in Blue Whale units whereby
catches were scaled according to the value of the whales (e.g., two Fin Whales
or six Sei Whales were equivalent to one Blue Whale unit) (Gambell 1976).
Quotas were set high enough that stocks were rapidly depleted. In 1975, a new