SI dolphin status report

Since 2003 when live dolphin exports began from Solomon Islands, the subject has attracted considerable attention and controversy for within the country and outside.

Just released is a wew workshop report from IUCN on the likely status of Solomon Islands populations of the Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphin (Tursiops aduncus) here.  The workshop was hosted by SPREP in Apia, Samoa and ran from 21-23 August 2008.

Main points from the report include:

• Dolphins should not be removed unless the population is shown to be able to sustain that removal. International principles indicate that wild population removals should not happen until unless The IUCN Global Plan of Action for the Conservation of Cetaceans had stated that as a general principle, small cetaceans should not be captured or removed from a wild population unless that specific population has been assessed and shown capable of sustaining the removals. A principal goal of the present workshop was to elaborate on the elements of an assessment that would meet this standard.
• International standards would require a local population to be at least 5-10,000 to be able to support the planned SIG permit level of 100 dolphins exported p.a.  It was reported at the workshop that the SIG annual allowable export level of dolphins was being increased to 100 dolphins of any species (from current level of 80), which was most likely to be only T. aduncus. If international standards were applied which permit only 1% or 2% of a population to be removed annually (per IWC, ASCOBANS etc.) then local T. aduncus population would have to be at least 5,000 or 10,000 to sustain the permitted level of exports.
• Current observations indicate a population of less than 5,000. Based on the current state of knowledge of Indo-Pacific bottlenose dolphins throughout their range, as well as the information on this species in the Solomon Islands reviewed at the workshop, abundance in the area of recent live-captures appears to be well below 5,000. By the time of the workshop, an ongoing photo-identification study around Guadalcanal Island had catalogued only somewhat more than 100 individuals.
• A combination of photographic mark-recapture and genetic analysis techniques are recommended to assess abundance. Population assessment efforts need to be expanded if live-capture activities are to continue. It was concluded that the best approach to assess abundance and delineate populations would be a combination of mark-recapture analyses of photo-identification data and genetic analyses of tissue samples.
  

Previous reports on the issue include a 2003 report by the IUCN/SSC Cetacean and Veterinary Specialist Groups.