UNCLOS supports work of IWC to save cetacean populations

Still, another declaration asserts that Article 65, the UNCLOS provision pertaining to conservation and management of marine mammals, lends direct support to the present moratorium on commercial whaling and the establishment of sanctuaries and other conservation measures. The same declaration also asserts that states must cooperate with respect to all cetaceans not just large ones. This declaration is a clear reference to the work of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) although it does not identify the IWC by name. To understand the context of this declaration, the moratorium on commercial whaling, which has been in effect since the mid-1980s, has come under assault in recent years by pro-whaling states that find no basis in law for the continuation of the moratorium. Furthermore, the reference to "all cetaceans" not just large whales speaks to an ongoing debate in the IWC: that is, whether or not the IWC is competent to regulate small cetaceans (i.e., dolphins and porpoises) as well as the great whales. The effect of this declaration will likely be to lend greater U.S. support to the efforts of the IWC which today has a solidly conservationist agenda.