The Chair presented a discussion paper which he had prepared for the meeting (SC2/Doc9: Establishing Marine Protected Areas for Cetaceans in the ACCOBAMS Area), with the following points.

ACCOBAMS provides for the use of marine protected areas (MPAs) as a tool for the conservation of cetaceans, both in the text of the Agreement

Of these, Action n° 4 (Development and implementation of pilot conservation and management actions in well-defined key areas containing critical habitat for populations belonging to priority species) identified four initial areas:

each of them containing critical habitat for one of the four species of the Agreement area thought as being in greatest need of protection ("priority species"), in which pilot conservation and management projects be developed and implemented as soon as possible. Conservation measures envisaged would involve the establishment of MPAs encompassing critical habitat of the target species, and the adoption of experimental management plans with the involvement of local people and user groups. In its Resolution 1.9 (paragr. 8), the Meeting of Parties called "on the Scientific Committee to further develop the actions needed to implement the priorities listed and described in Annex 1 ... ".

During its first Meeting (Tunis, 3-5 October), the Scientific Committee of ACCOBAMS addressed the issue, and remarked that MPAs containing critical habitat of priority species should also be envisaged in other areas in addition to the four identified by the Meeting of the Parties. It was thus decided that proposals for additional areas in which to undertake such actions should be solicited from the conservation community at large, possibly through the Regional Representatives of the Scientific Committee, and sent to the Scientific Committee for an evaluation.

MPAs are increasingly recognised as a primary tool for the conservation of marine habitats and biodiversity. Whether MPAs can also effectively protect large, wide-ranging species, such as cetaceans, has been the subject of debate (e.g., Reeves, R.R. 2000. The value of sanctuaries, parks, and reserves (protected areas) as tools for conserving marine mammals. Contract report to Marine Mammal Commission, Contract No. T74465385. 50 pp. Available from: Marine Mammal Commission, 4340 East-West Highway, Room 905, Bethesda, Maryland 20814). Particularly in the case of protecting cetaceans, it is important to ensure that a proposed MPA makes conservation sense. Generally speaking, MPAs for cetacean protection should be proposed only if it is clear that the species to be protected is (are) not already protected with other means; for example, implementing legal measures targeting directly human activities known to impact on the species, or declaring a given species to be protected regardless of the animals' whereabouts, may be significantly faster and more cost-effective than establishing an MPA, considering the effort needed to put in place the political, socio-economic, financial public awareness and administrative set up needed for the latter.

However, the Mediterranean and Black Seas are a special case, because human presence, use and impact are extremely high and pervasive in this region. A simple indicator - the number of people living on the Mediterranean and Black Sea coasts (combined) per km2 of marine surface - would give for the Mediterranean the value of 57, rising to 113 under the influx of summer tourist arrivals (based on the lowest Blue Plan scenario for tourist development in the Mediterranean in 2005; with the highest scenario the indicator would rise to 147). Considering that globally this indicator's value is 17 (= total world population divided by the global surface of the oceans and seas: a crude indicator, here included mainly to provide a gross comparison), it is easy to understand how the Mediterranean is one of the marine regions of the world most heavily populated.

The consequence of this is that in the Agreement region, even though it is illegal to deliberately kill cetaceans almost everywhere, special MPAs are needed to give cetaceans a greater protection and relief from human encroachment. By providing a legal means of managing human presence and activities, MPAs afford management, control and enforcement opportunities that do not exist elsewhere, and thus have the value-added benefit of reducing the chances of unintentional harm (e.g. bycatch, collisions), of providing better habitat conditions for prey, reducing noise levels, etc. In addition, MPA management plans may include provisions for interpretation, awareness, education and respectful fruition of cetaceans for which there may be little or no opportunity outside their limits.

MPAs can provide an ideal framework for the conduction of robust scientific investigations and ecosystem studies, and combine them with socio-economic analyses and other management-oriented assessments. In such special areas set aside for cetacean conservation, consideration for the status of cetaceans can and must have the highest priority. In MPAs for cetaceans dangerous fishing practices such as driftnets may be forbidden, and the use of acoustic technology to exclude dolphins from their habitat may be restricted; due consideration may also be given to the maintenance of prey mass and quality needed to sustain a population of cetaceans, as can be possibly inferred from knowledge or hypothesis of pre-decline levels. Finally, disturbance can be monitored and maintained at a minimum. In conclusion, in consideration of the high level of human encroachment on the sea, it can be suggested that in the ACCOBAMS area MPAs have a specially important conservation value for cetaceans.

To be effective, MPAs for cetaceans must be designed with the goal of conserving the critical habitat of a particular population or populations, and therefore their main objective will be of enabling and implementing appropriate management of present and future human activities which are known to, or are likely to affect cetaceans and their habitat. Therefore, before an MPA can be conceived, information is needed on the geography and variability of the critical habitat to be protected, as well as knowledge of present and future human use of the area. Scientific methods for gathering such knowledge have recently made great progress, and are readily available for implementation.

Any riparian State in the Agreement area has the power of establishing one or more MPAs in its territorial waters, and most have done so. Batisse and Jeudy de Grissac (Batisse M., Jeudy de Grissac A. 1995. Marine Region 3 : Mediterranean. pp. 77-104 in: G. Kelleher, C. Bleakley and S. Wells (Eds.), A global representative system of marine protected areas. Vol. I. Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, World Bank, and World Conservation Union 219 pp.) list 49 MPAs in the Mediterranean and four in the Black Sea, and several more were established since their work was published. However, significant levels of heterogeneity in the nature, governance, scope and effectiveness of MPAs are bound to exist in the absence of supra-national coordination at the regional level.

In the Mediterranean such useful role is provided by a protocol to the Barcelona Convention entitled "Protocol concerning Specially Protected Areas and Biological Diversity in the Mediterranean" (also known as the "SPA Protocol"), adopted in its revised form in 1995.

The SPA Protocol provides, among other things, for the establishment of Specially Protected Areas of Mediterranean Importance (SPAMIs), having very precise and stringent requirements in terms of management and effectiveness. Any Party to the Protocol may propose that part of its territorial waters be declared a SPAMI, and if requirements are met that SPAMI is eventually adopted and inscribed in the List of SPAMIs by the Ordinary Meeting of the Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention. To propose a SPAMI, a State must submit to the Convention a comprehensive document, compiled along the lines contained in an annotated format provided to the Parties by the Regional Activity Centre/Specially Protected Areas (RAC/SPA) of Tunis.

Most importantly, as far as cetaceans are concerned, SPAMIs can also be established in the Mediterranean high seas, and all Parties to the Protocol are bound by the SPAMI regulations. The Pelagos Sanctuary for Mediterranean Cetaceans, established in 1999 by France, Italy and Monaco, was declared a SPAMI in 2001 by the Contracting Parties to the Barcelona Convention during their meeting in Monaco, and this enables management and conservation measures to be implemented there even though 53% of the Sanctuary lies in the high seas, outside the national jurisdiction of any State.

As recalled earlier, as far as the Mediterranean is concerned, specially protected areas for cetaceans should be established by the Parties of ACCOBAMS within the framework of the SPA Protocol (Art. 3 of the Conservation Plan). This will ensure maximum compliance throughout the Agreement sub-region, and provide a supplement of solidity in terms of governance, management, effectiveness and visibility.

The suggestion is made here that the annotated format provided to Parties by the RAC/SPA for SPAMI proposals, modified and adapted to account for species-specific requirements and for the enlargement to the Black Sea and to the Contiguous Atlantic Area, be adopted for the formulation of proposals of MPAs for cetaceans in the ACCOBAMS area.

The need for the establishment of networks of protected areas was emphasized, most notably, by the World Summit on Sustainable Development (Johannesburg, 2002). In order to proceed in this direction, and to contribute to the endowment of the Mediterranean with a network of specially protected areas for cetaceans, the following suggestions were provided by the Chair:

The four regional representatives within the Scientific Committee were asked, in collaboration with both Sub-Regional Coordinating Units, to prepare a list of marine protected areas with the view to extending the remit of these protected areas for cetacean protection.

The meeting was informed that the Black Sea Commission is developing a format for reporting, inter alia, on marine protected areas. The advisory group of the Commission will examine the annotated and modified SPAMI format and see to which extent it can be used in the Black Sea.

During the discussion concerning the link between ACCOBAMS and the Pelagos Sanctuary, some observers informed the meeting about a LIFE programme that had been funded by the EC on matters related to the functioning of the Pelagos Sanctuary, and expressed the full availability of the project management to optimise efforts with ACCOBAMS. The Committee approved such line of action. Recommendation 2.3, for the establishment of a link with the Pelagos Sanctuary, was adopted.

The Scientific Committee of ACCOBAMS recognises the common aims of ACCOBAMS and the PELAGOS Sanctuary with respect to the conservation of cetaceans in the area. It recommends that the Secretariat explores how best to ensure that appropriate co-operation occurs between ACCOBAMS and the PELAGOS Sanctuary for the benefit of cetacean conservation. This should include the exchange of information, expertise and observers at each others meetings, with the aim of developing co-operative research projects that ensure the most efficient use of resources.

New episodes in the Cetacean Investigation series coming in April 2008.