WWF has been left extremely concerned after Russia refused to put a halt to a planned seismic survey in the feeding grounds of the critically endangered Western North Pacific Gray Whale.

Plans Remain

In what will likely be seen as another failure by the IWC annual meeting this week, Russia still are still planning to go ahead with the survey despite calls from most other countries involved, and the IWC Scientific Committee making a strong recommendation that it does not go ahead.

Serious Concerns

With just 26 known breeding females of the Western Gray Whale population remaining, seismic blasts in the Russian Far East where females and their calves are trying to feed led the IWC’s Scientific Committee to express “serious concerns about the potential impact on Western Gray Whales” and to “strongly recommend” that a seismic survey by petroleum company Rosneft be postponed.

“The scientific recommendation and statements by several governments here at the IWC should have served as a wake up call to Russia,” said Wendy Elliott of WWF. “This whale population is on the brink of extinction, yet oil and gas exploration in its only feeding ground is increasing.”

Scandalous

“This is absolutely scandalous and completely ignores sound scientific advice,” she added. “Russia must reconsider its position on allowing the Rosneft seismic testing to go ahead this year.”

Aleksey Knizhnikov, WWF-Russia Oil and Gas Environmental Policy Officer said: ‘”n addition to scientific advice of IWC, a Russian scientific body has also raised concerns about the Rosneft survey. Furthermore, this survey will be undertaken inside the proposed whale reserve that Russian government are currently considering establishing.”

Countries that took the floor to support the Scientific Committee recommendation that the survey be postponed included the United Kingdom, the United States, Mexico and Monaco.

Powerless or Unwilling

One of the accusations that has been consistently levelled at the IWC is that although they often publish reports or publicly condemn actions that could threaten whales, they seem to be powerless or unwilling to actually do anything to change the situation.

The other major failure of this weeks’ IWC meeting was that no agreement was reached on the proposal to lift the ban on international whaling. A lifting of the ban may have actually improved the welfare of whales around the world, as it would have allowed closer monitoring and control of those countries that would go on whaling regardless.

However, Russia’s continuing plans to go ahead with this survey demonstrate one of the key reasons why no agreement could be reached on the ban, as those countries that remain opposed to whaling do not have faith in the IWC to satisfactorily police whaling around the world.