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Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans of the Baltic, North East Atlantic, Irish and North Seas

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Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans of the Baltic, North East Atlantic, Irish and North Seas,often abbreviated toASCOBANS,is a regional agreement on the protection of small cetaceans that was concluded as theAgreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans of the Baltic and North Seasunder the auspices of the UNEPConvention on Migratory Species,or Bonn Convention, in September 1991 and came into force in March 1994. In February 2008, an extension of the agreement area came into force which changed the name to “Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans of the Baltic, North East Atlantic, Irish and North Seas”. ASCOBANS covers all species of toothed whales (Odontoceti) in the Agreement Area, with the exception of the sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus).

ASCOBANS
Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans of the Baltic, North East Atlantic, Irish and North Seas
ASCOBANS Official Logo
TypeAgreement
Signed17 March 1992(1992-03-17)
LocationNew York, US
Effective29 March 1994
ConditionRatification by 6 range states
Signatories6
Parties10
DepositarySecretary-General of the United Nations
LanguagesRussian, German, French, English

Background

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Numerous species of smallcetaceanslive in theBaltic,IrishandNorth Seasand the North East Atlantic, including dolphins, whales and harbour porpoises. Theharbour porpoiseis the most common small cetacean species in the North Sea and the only cetacean species native to the Baltic Sea and therefore is the flagship species of theAgreement. As migratory species, cetaceans face of a number of threats caused by human activities. These include habitat loss, marine pollution, acoustic disturbances from various sources and, most importantly, incidental catch by entanglement infishing gear,so-calledbycatch.Every year, thousands of whales, dolphins and porpoises fall victim to bycatch, drowning because they can no longer swim up to the surface for a breath of air.

Organisational structure

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The Agreement has three main bodies that collaborate towards the implementation of ASCOBANS:

Meeting of the Parties

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The Meeting of the Parties is the decision-making body of the Agreement. It meets every three years to assess progress and develop further steps in the implementation of ASCOBANS. Apart from the Member States, Non-PartyRange Statesand relevant regional, intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations can attain observer status to attend MOP meetings[1]without having a decision-making mandate themselves.

Advisory Committee

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Each Party to the Agreement can nominate one member and a number of advisors to the Advisory Committee, which meets once a year. The role of the Committee is to provide scientific and policy advice to the Secretariat (see below) and the Meeting of the Parties. As with the MOP, external observers may take part in AC meetings,[2]while the nominated members are the sole decision makers.

Secretariat

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The ASCOBANS Secretariat, located in Bonn, acts as the coordinating body of the Agreement. It gathers and disseminates information to the MOP and the AC. It plays an important role in awareness-raising and provides advice and support to the Parties, assisting them in the implementation of the agreement. It services the sessions of the Meeting of the Parties and meetings of the Advisory Committee. The ASCOBANS Secretariat along with other Regional Agreement Secretariats within the framework of the Bonn Convention is integrated into the Agreements Unit of the CMS Secretariat.[3]The 5th Meeting of the Parties of ASCOBANS (2006) decided that from 1 January 2007 the UNEP/CMS Secretariat would serve as the Secretariat for the ASCOBANS Agreement; and the Executive Secretary of UNEP/CMS would be the acting Executive Secretary of ASCOBANS. The current Acting Executive Secretary isBradnee Chambers.

Species

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The most importantspeciescovered by the Agreement are:

Agreement area and member states

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ASCOBANS is open for accession by all Range States (i.e. any state that exercises jurisdiction over any part of the range of a species covered by the Agreement or whose flag vessels engage in operations adversely affecting small cetaceans in the Agreement area) and by regional economic integration organisations.

Originally only covering the North and Baltic Sea, as of 3 February 2008 the ASCOBANS Area has been extended to include also the Irish Sea and parts of the North Eastern Atlantic. It is defined as follows: "…the marine environment of the Baltic and North Seas and contiguous area of the North East Atlantic, as delimited by the shores of the Gulfs of Bothnia and Finland; to the south-east bylatitude 36°N,where this line of latitude meets the line joining the lighthouses of Cape St. Vincent (Portugal) and Casablanca (Morocco); to the south-west bylatitude 36°Nandlongitude 15°W;to the north-west by longitude 15°W and a line drawn through the following points:latitude 59°N/longitude 15°W,latitude 60°N/longitude 5°W,latitude 61°N/longitude 4°W;latitude 62°N/longitude 3°W;to the north by latitude 62°N; and including the Kattegat and the Sound and Belt passages. "

Parties

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The European Union signed the Agreement, but never ratified it.

Non-party range states

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Harbour porpoise conservation

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Three action plans for harbour porpoises specific to the situation in different parts of the Agreement Area have been concluded to date.[4]

  • Jastarnia Plan, a Recovery Plan for Baltic Harbour Porpoises (2009)[5]
  • Conservation Plan for Harbour Porpoises in the North Sea (2009)[6]
  • Conservation Plan for the Harbour Porpoise Population in the Western Baltic, the Belt Sea and the Kattegat (2012)[7]

Public reception

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Over the years, the Agreement has appeared in a number of newspapers, both national and international. Attention has been drawn to ASCOBANS activities, successes and setbacks. While theWWFpraised ASCOBANS’ efforts towards bycatch reduction in 2001,[8]it voiced criticism in 2004 claiming that gaping loopholes in ASCOBANS agreements permit the continued unnecessary killing of small cetaceans by fishermen, and that stronger measures would reduce mammalian bycatch.[9]Meanwhile, in 2005, the TAZ[10]presented the crucial role ASCOBANS plays in the protection of harbour porpoises in the Baltic Sea – pointing out the successful introduction of a regulation that by 2007 all fishing vessels be equipped with pingers to warn porpoises and hence avert bycatch. In a more recent statement, the Gesellschaft zum Schutz der Meeressäugetiere, GSM, has called for increased attention to the work of ASCOBANS on the wider scale.[11]Some NGOs have voiced concern about possible effects of the changed Secretariat arrangements since January 2007, which they see as weakening the capacity of this body of the Agreement.

Since 2003, the International Day of the Baltic Harbour Porpoise, which is observed each year on the 3rd Sunday in May in institutions throughout the Baltic riparian states, has spread awareness of the plight of the harbour porpoise. The ASCOBANS Secretariat publishes a periodic newsletter, which informs about latest activities. Subscriptions are possible via the ASCOBANS website.[12]

ASCOBANS was a partner to theYear of the Dolphin.

References

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  1. ^"Meetings of the Parties".Ascobans.org.Retrieved28 January2018.
  2. ^"Advisory Committee Meetings".Ascobans.org.Retrieved28 January2018.
  3. ^"CMS - Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals".Cms.int.Retrieved28 January2018.
  4. ^"Action Plans".Ascobans.org.Retrieved28 January2018.
  5. ^"Archived copy"(PDF).Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 2014-08-20.Retrieved2014-08-19.{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  6. ^"Archived copy"(PDF).Archived fromthe original(PDF)on 2014-08-20.Retrieved2014-08-19.{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  7. ^"ASCOBANS Conservation Plan for the Harbour Porpoise Population in the Western Baltic, the Belt Sea and the Kattegat"(PDF).Ascobans.org.Retrieved28 January2018.
  8. ^[1][dead link‍]
  9. ^"WWF Article 2004".Wwf.org.uk.Archived fromthe originalon 2006-09-25.Retrieved28 January2018.
  10. ^"Bitte keinen Beifang mehr".Die Tageszeitung: Taz.11 May 2005. p. 24.Retrieved28 January2018.
  11. ^"SOS für Schweinswale - Pressemitteilung".Pressrelations.de.Archived fromthe originalon 19 July 2011.Retrieved28 January2018.
  12. ^"ASCOBANS - Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans of the Baltic, North East Atlantic, Irish and North Seas".Ascobans.org.Retrieved28 January2018.
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