Alexei Birkun (1), Giovanni Bearzi (2), Dmitriy Glazov (3), Irakli Goradze (4), George Komakhidze (4), Sergey Krivokhizhin (1) & Olga Shpak (3)

(1) Brema Laboratory, Gagarin str. 9a-18, 95026 Simferopol, Ukraine
(2) Tethys Research Institute, c/o Acquario Civico, Viale G.B. Gadio 2, 20121 Milano, Italy
(3) Severtsov Institite of Ecology and Evolution, Leninsky ave. 33, 117071 Moscow, Russia
(4) Institute of Marine Ecology and Fisheries, Rustaveli str. 51, 6010 Batumi, Georgia

INTRODUCTION
1. The strategy for cetacean research and conservation actions presented here has been developed following a request by ACCOBAMS, that encouraged one of the authors (A. Birkun) to proceed with the development of a Black Sea conservation and management plan, according to the Implementation Priority #6 (ACCOBAMS, 2002). Such management plan is intended to complement the existing Implementation Priorities addressing cetacean research and conservation in the Black Sea.

2. This document was prepared during the first training course on cetacean photo-identification sponsored by ACCOBAMS, that was held in July 2003 at the Tethys Research Institute field station in Kalamos, Greece. The course provided opportunities to discuss the most appropriate actions and prioritize them based on input provided by researchers from Ukraine, Russia and Georgia. All participants agreed about the general strategy and committed to support the actions outlined in this document. Representatives from three other Black Sea countries (Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria) did not participate in the photo-id training course and as a consequence they could not participate in this effort. Therefore, they are encouraged to provide input and ideas to further complement and improve the present contribution to a Conservation Plan for Black Sea cetaceans.

3. Although an attempt was made to design a common strategy for all Black Sea countries, differences in the available expertise and level of organization among areas, as well as different scientific backgrounds and logistical constraints, ultimately affected the design of uniform strategies and resulted in different approaches and recommendations.

4. Recommendations made by the IWC Subcommittee on Small Cetaceans (IWC, in press) were adopted by this document and partly incorporated in the strategy presented here. The proposed priority actions were identified in addition to or based on the recommendations by the ACCOBAMS Scientific Committee (Tunis, 2002), as well as in accordance with the IUCN/SSC 2002-2010 Conservation Action Plan for the World(s Cetaceans (Reeves et al., 2003).

RECOMMENDATIONS
We recommend that a common mechanism to promote cetacean research, conservation actions and capacity building be promoted by ACCOBAMS and adopted by all Black Sea countries, with the aim of facilitating cross-country collaboration while taking into account regional differences.

We recommend that a Conservation Plan for cetaceans (CPC) in the Black Sea region be created based on a strategy designed by ACCOBAMS. The implementation of such a CPC should coordinated by ACCOBAMS and BSC. Although the final CPC may result from a series of regional Action Plans developed independently by each Black Sea country, collaborative efforts and management actions should be strongly encouraged. For instance, Ukraine, Russia and Georgia may develop a joint CPC based on the hypothesis that cetaceans move across the coastline of these countries. Such an hypothesis remains to be confirmed by the ongoing photo-identification studies.
We recommend that a link with the Black Sea Environment Biodiversity Monitoring Programme be established.

EC Agencies such as INCO-Copernicus, INTAS and TACIS may support scientific research and collaboration between Western European and the former USSR countries (i.e. the so called NIS countries, including Georgia, Russia and Ukraine). We recommend that links be created between ACCOBAMS and these agencies to explore possibilities to fund collaborative projects centred around cetacean research and conservation.
A Management Plan for cetaceans is expected to be developed by Romania based on the financial support provided by a recent LIFE-NATURE project. We recommend that such plan be reviewed by ACCOBAMS experts and implemented where appropriate with support from ACCOBAMS. The existing possibilities for cross-country collaboration should be facilitated.

Finally, we recommend that Turkey, Romania and Bulgaria be requested to provide further input and comments to complement and improve the present document.

PROPOSED ACTIONS
The 10 Actions proposed have been divided into four broader categories: Management , Capacity building , Education & Awareness and Research & Monitoring . We would like to stress that all categories are equally important and they will have to be addressed simultaneously.