This year Arabian Sea whales made a strong showing at the meeting of the Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission.  The following documents were all presented in either the Southern Hemisphere  (SH) subcommittee, or the Human Induced Mortality (HIM) subcommittee.  Arabian Sea Humpback whales received a great deal of attention and discussion from both subcommittees, and the Scientific Committee reiterated its concern about the conservation status of this population, making  a number of formal recommendations for continued research and conservation measures in the region.

You can download the papers that were presented at this year’s meeting by clicking on the links below. They represent the most up-to-date information on Arabian Sea Whale populations.  However, please bear in mind that these reports do not carry the same status as papers published in peer-reviewed journals.  The official guidelines published on the IWC website for citing reports to the IWC SC meeting are as follows:

‘Papers submitted to the IWC Scientific Committee are produced to advance discussions within that Committee; they may be preliminary or exploratory. It is important that if you wish to cite this/a paper outside the context of an IWC meeting, you notify the author at least six weeks before it is cited to ensure that it has not been superseded or found to contain errors.’

SC_66b_SH_12_ASWN Newsletter

SC_66b_SH_14_ASWN Progress Update

SC_66b_SH_28_Satellite tagging and research Update Oman

SC_66b_SH_32_Preliminary report on Analysis of ASHW Acoustic data from Oman

SC_66b_HIM_10_whale and ship co-occurence in Arabian Sea

SC_66b_SH_34_Baleen whale records from Arabian Sea coast of India

Amaral et al. 2016_ Update on Genetic Analysis of ASHW samples from Oman _ working paper only

We are happy to share the final versions of the ASWN logo and style guides in English, Arabic and Farsi/Persian.  Please feel free to download the versions that you think you  might want to use, and if you don’t see your language there, please write to Oliver Kerr: Okerr@ewswwf.ae to request a version of the logo in your target language.

Style Guides:

ASWN_quickguide_Arabic

ASWN_quickguide_English

ASWN_quickguide_Farsi-Persian

Logo files in English:

ASWN_logo_EnglishASWN_logoBLANK

Logo files in Arabic:

Logo files in Farsi/Persian:

Please take some time to enjoy our second newsletter, which was finalized at the end of May 2016.

ASWN May 2016 Newsletter Final2

Photo contributed by Darryl MacDonald  and ESO: Humpback whale and satellite tagging research team off the coast of Oman – who is watching who?

Network members in Oman have been doing an excellent job of generating press coverage and awareness of Arabian Sea Humpback whales.  Check out these articles in local newspapers!

Times of Oman weekly issue 1 January 2015

Times of Oman coverage of entanglement response workshop

Article on port mitigation measures and conservation efforts

The Environment Society of Oman’s Renaissance Whale and Dolphin Project successfully tagged three humpback whales (named “Hamar An Nafur”, “Sifa” and “Yasser”) during their December expedition in the Gulf of Masirah. Previous research has established the significance of the area as important whale habitat, and the recent tagging efforts were launched to provide greater detail on their movements for conservation management purposes. . Stay tuned for more info and on the link below to follow daily updates of these magnificent whales on their ‘Giant Jouneys’: Link to Seaturtle.org tracks
ESO would like to thank their sponsors Renaissance Services and Port of Duqm for their support!

At the end of October, 2015, a week-long workshop in Oman helped a variety of stakeholders learn about cetacean entanglement and stranding response.  Requested by the government of Oman, and delivered by the IWC in partnership with the Center for Coastal Studies, Provincetown USA, the workshop included classroom theory sessions as well as beach- and boat-based hands-on practice.  The workshop was almost too successful in its aim to provide hands-on training, as an unexpected mass stranding of 36 spinner dolphins was discovered in the middle of the training week, allowing for a lot of practice in data collection from carcasses.

Read more about the training event and see photos on this excellent summary on the IWC website:

(CCS) IWC summary of the training workshop

as well as the CMS website:

CMS report on the entanglement response workshop in Oman

Participants in the workshop receiving hands on boat-based disentanglement training practice. (Photo courtesy  of  IWC.)

Also check out the IWC-published best practice guidelines for large whale disentanglement:

IWC best practice guidelines for disentanglement of large whales

A capacity building workshop to support the implementation of the Regional Observer Scheme of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) was organized by the IOTC Secretariat in cooperation with the CMS Secretariat in Muscat from 18-22 October 2015. The workshop provided expert training to support the creation and implementation of observer schemes in Oman, Pakistan and Iran with a specific focus on gillnet fisheries. Given that accidental entanglement in fishing gear is one of the leading threats to Arabian Sea humpback whales and other whale populations in region, this effort represents a significant step toward threat mitigation. Read more about it on the CMS report of the workshop by clicking on the link below.

CMS report on IOTC training workshop in Oman