N.Z. joining move to protect seals

Press, 15 August 1978, Page 16

N.Z. joining move to protect seals

By

STUART McMILLAN

of “The Press”

A bill introduced in Parliament last week should at last allow New Zealand to ratify an international agreement to conserve Antarctic seals. New Zealand signed the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Seals on June 9, 1972, but is one of five Antarctic Treaty nations which has not yet ratified it.

The Marine Mammals Protection Bill, which the Minister of Fisheries (Mr Bolger) introduced last week, once adopted, should enable New Zealand to ratify the seal agreement without further delay. The convention came into force on March 11 of this year. The (then) 12 Antarctic Treaty nations concluded the convention early

in 1972 and all of the 12 signed it before the end of the year. Only South Africa passed a-propriate legislation through its Parliament that year; Norway ratified the convention late in 1973; Britain before the end of 1974: France early in 1975; and the United States early in 1977. But it was not until this year that the required seven nations had adopted the appropriate laws. The Soviet Union ratified it on February 8 and Belgium on February 9. Argentina. Australia, Chile, Japan, and New Zealand have yet to ratify the convention. The convention came into force 30 days after the seventh government had informed the British Government that it had ratified the convention.

The aim of the convention

is to protect Antarctic seals from over-exploitation by commercial sealing, and to provide sound scientific data on which to base harvesting. The convention applies south of 60 degrees South latitude. Catches made in pack ice north of that parallel also have to be reported. In three small areas — round the South Orkney Islands, and in the north-west and south-west Ross Sea — catching of any species of seal is banned. '

The Southern Elephant, Ross, and Fur seals may not be taken under the convention. Exceptions are made for scientific investigation, museum purposes, or an indispensible food for men or dogs.

The three other species mentioned in the convention have catch limits assigned to

them for any one sealing year. The present quotas are: Crabeater (175,000), Leopard (12,000), and Weddell (5000). The limits will be varied from year to year according to how well the species is believed to be faring under exploitation. Weddell seals aged one year or more may not be taken except during February. This is to protect the adult breeding stock while it is concentrated and vulnerable.

The catch quotas have been set conservatively. Estimates of the total Crabeater seal population for instance, run to 15 million and more. The Antarctic continent has been divided into six sectors. under the convention. For each sealing season (the. six months from September 1 to the end of February) one of the sectors is totally closed to sealing. The next season that sector will reopen and the next sector

in numerical order will be closed. The convention allows for the establishment of an observer system to ensure compliance with the regulations. Various organisations will be set up under the commission. Until these are established, the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research through its group of specialists on seals in the working group on biology, has the responsibility to monitor any catching or exploitation, to encourage the exchange of scientific data, and to recommend programmes for scientific research and collection of biological data.

The convention does allow for the establishment of a sealing industry. It attempts to set up safeguards in advance of the development of a full-scale industry. The convention relies on a considerable amount of trust. At the moment the plan is

for S.C.A.R. to be advised within a week of the details of the age. sex, and reproductive condition of seals taken. S.C-A.R. would be able to collate the material and monitor the exploitation.

If countries, or sealing firms, do not act in good faith, S.C.A.R. will have a problem. The convention also allows for the withdrawal of any member. That may be unlikely because of the ‘‘Antarctic club" feeling. But what will happen if other countries decide to exploit the seals and to ignore the convention? Yet there is some satisfaction to be taken from the fact that a convention covering the exploitation of seals has been settled. The desperate need for the Antarctic now is a convention to cover all the marine resources and then one to cover the mineral resources.