Scott's interests are evolutionary and ecological pattern and process in cetaceans, including their abundance, population structure, genetic diversity and systematic relationships. In his research, he has tried to bring together both molecular and demographic approaches to improve the conservation of these species. One of the recent initiatives of his research group has been to establish a web-based program for identification of whales, dolphins and porpoises using applied bioinformatics and a validated database of DNA sequences (visit
www.dna-surveillance.auckland.ac.nz). Scott has represented New Zealand as a delegate to the Scientific Committee of the IWC since 1994 and is a member of the Cetacean Specialist Group of the IUCN.
The rise of scientific whaling
Since the moratorium on commercial whaling, in force since 1986, more then 25,000 whales have been killed for scientific research and this number is set to increase dramatically. In the last few years, the Government of Japan has doubled its take of minke whales in both the North Pacific and Southern Oceans and added Bryde’s whales, sei whales and sperm whales in the North Pacific and fin whales in the Southern Ocean. Humpback whales in the Southern Ocean are the next species scheduled for this unregulated hunt. Although ‘scientific whaling’ is allowed under Article VIII of the 1946 International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling, the extent of scientific whaling today is clearly an abuse of the original intent of this article.
Scott will summarize recent criticisms of scientific whaling programs, drawing on scientific and procedural issues raised by members of the Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission. He will then consider possible responses, both legal and scientific, to the growing abuses of this "slaughter for science".
The neglected minke whale
The ‘minke whale’ is often referred to as the most abundant species of whale in the world, having escaped intensive commercial hunting because of its relatively small size. In fact the minke whale is a complex of three or four species of related whales with varying histories of hunting and a complex pattern of stock structure in some oceans. For almost all stocks, estimates of abundance are controversial. In the case of the Antarctic minke, the Scientific Committee of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) has had to withdraw its 'agreed' estimate of more than 762,000. Although the IWC website states that "the Commission is unable to provide reliable estimates at the present time", many scientists consider that the true estimate is only a half or even a third of this number. Despite this uncertainty, minke whales are the primary target of scientific whaling by Japan in the Southern Ocean and the North Pacific and commercial whaling (under objection) by Norway in the North Atlantic. Around Japan and Korea, minke whales are taken in large numbers by entanglement in fisheries gear, supporting a thriving commercial market. Molecular monitoring of whalemeat markets suggest that more than 800 minke whales have been killed in Korea in the last five years and a similar number in Japan. Sadly, this neglected coastal population of minke whales is likely to decline towards extinction as a result of this unregulated "net whaling".
