NMFS Biological Opinion on U.S. Navy training ... - Govsupport.us

FINAL PROGRAMMATIC BIOLOGICAL OPINION ON U.S. NAVY ACTIVITIES IN THE HAWAII RANGE COMPLEX 2008-2013
North Pacific increased until 1968, when 16,357 sperm whales were harvested, then declined after 1968 because of
harvest limits imposed by the IWC. Perry et al. (1999) estimated that, on average, more than 20,000 sperm whales
were harvested in the Southern Hemisphere each year between 1956 and 1976.
These reports probably underestimate the actual number of sperm whales that were killed by whalers, particularly
because they could not have incorporated realistic estimates of the number of sperm whales killed by Soviet whaling
fleets, which often went unreported. Between 1947 and 1973, Soviet whaling fleets engaged in illegal whaling in the
Indian, North Pacific, and southern Oceans. In the Southern Hemisphere, these whalers killed an estimated 100,000
whales that they did not report to the International Whaling Commission (Yablokov et al. 1998). Illegal catches in
the Northern Hemisphere (primarily in the North Pacific) were smaller but still caused sperm whales to disappear
from large areas of the North Pacific Ocean (Yablokov and Zemsky 2000).
In addition to large and illegal harvests of sperm whales, Soviet whalers had disproportionate effect on sperm whale
populations because they commonly killed adult females in any reproductive condition (pregnant or lactating) as
well as immature sperm whales of either gender.
When the International Whaling Commission introduced the International Observer Scheme in 1972, the IWC relaxed
regulations that limited the minimum length of sperm whales that could be caught from 11.6 meters to 9.2 meters out
of a concern that too many male sperm whales were being caught so reducing this size limit would encourage fleets
to catch more females. Unfortunately, the IWC’s decision had been based on data from the Soviet fleets who
commonly reported female sperm whales as males. As a result, the new regulations allowed the Soviet whalers to
continue their harvests of female and immature sperm whales legally, with substantial consequences for sperm whale
populations. Berzin noted in a report he wrote in 1977, “the result of this was that some breeding areas for sperm
whales became deserts” (Berzin 2007).
Although the International Whaling Commission protected sperm whales from commercial harvest in 1981, whaling
operations along the Japanese coast continued to hunt sperm whales in the North Pacific until 1988 (Reeves and
Whitehead 1997). More recently, the Japanese Whaling Association began hunting sperm whales for research. In
2000, the Japanese Whaling Association announced that it planned to kill 10 sperm whales in the Pacific Ocean for
research, which was the first time sperm whales have been hunted since the international ban on commercial
whaling. Despite protests from the U.S. government and members of the IWC, the Japanese government harvested 5
sperm whales and 43 Bryde’s whales in the last six months of 2000. According to the Japanese Institute of Cetacean
Research (Institute of Cetacean Research undated), another 5 sperm whales were killed for research in 2002 – 2003.
The consequences of these deaths on the status and trend of sperm whales remains uncertain, given that they
probably have not recovered from the legacy of whaling; however, the renewal of a program that intentionally
targets and kills sperm whales before we can be certain they recovered from a history of over-harvest places this
species at risk in the foreseeable future.
Sperm whales are still hunted for subsistence purposes by whalers from Lamalera, Indonesia, which is on the south
coast of the island of Lembata and from Lamakera on the islands of Solor. These whalers hunt in a traditional
manner: with bamboo spears and using small wooden outriggers, 10–12 m long and 2 m wide, constructed without
nails and with sails woven from palm fronds. The animals are killed by the harpooner leaping onto the back of the
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