Representatives from St Vincent are in Brazil for the 2018 meeting of the International Whaling Commission.
They joined delegates from around the world in the coastal town of Florianopolis to take a scientific, cultural and financial look at the future of international whaling.
The U.S. delegation (including the Arctic representatives) put forward a proposal to amend the way the subsistence hunt is currently managed.
St. Vincent and the Grenadines, The Kingdom of Denmark and the Russian Federation co-sponsored the amendment.
It’s not a large change from the way the hunt is currently managed, though it allows for more seasonal fluctuations in strike numbers through a change to the carryover provision.
They proposed that for the years 2019-2025, the number of bowhead whales landed should not exceed 392, which is in keeping with current regulations.
The number of bowhead whales struck per year should also not be more than 67, which is as it currently stands.
“With regard to the use of strikes in any one year, the Scientific Committee reiterated its previous advice, applicable for all SLAs (strike limit algorithms), that inter-annual variation of 50 percent within a block, with the same allowance from the last year of one block to the first of the next, is acceptable,” the amendment notes.
“The rationale for this limitation has not changed from a scientific perspective. SLAs are robust with respect to this carryover provision, particularly since all allocated strikes are considered as taken in the testing process.”
