A study by a team of marine scientists have put the cost of the annual anti-whaling activities by conservation groups at around USD25 million. The problem is that despite this substantial cost the activities have had little real effect. The reality is that despite the occasional successful year the numbers of whales killed by whalers have more than doubled since the early 1990′s.
Could whale quotas save whales?
The question that the scientists looked at was whether there was a more effective way of reducing or even ending whaling than direct activities and whether there could be a cheaper way of reducing the whale hunt.
The team made up of an economics expert and two marine ecologists for the University of California, Santa Barbara and the Arizona State University proposes that a market in trading quotas could be the answer to effectively reducing whaling.
The proposals for introducing quotas of whales that can be taken each year is not new. Whaling nations have previously proposed such things at meetings of the International Whaling Commission (IWC). These proposals have always been turned down after active lobbying by anti-whaling and conservation groups. The result being a free for all and uncontrolled whaling activities.
Whales quotas could be purchased by conservation groups to end whaling.
The proposal by the study team – the article is in this months issue of Nature and entitled Conservation science: A market approach to saving the whales – would see a set number of whales allowed each year for whaling which will then be offered in a freely traded market. both conservation groups and whalers will be able to openly bid for parts of the quotas.
The initial allocation of the whale quotas would have to be determined and all members of the IWC would see a share of the quota. By having an active market in the quotas the conservation groups would be able to buy the quotas from whaling nations and quota owners.
“We propose an alternative path forward that could break the deadlock: quotas that can be bought and sold, creating a market that would be economically, ecologically, and socially viable for whalers and whales alike,” the authors write.
Trade in quotas have worked in other fields to benefit the environment.
The authors – Christopher Costello and Steve Gaines, professors of economics and marine science, respectively, at the Bren School of Environmental Science & Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and Leah Gerber, a population ecologist and marine conservation biologist at Arizona State University – point to the success of fishing quotas in conserving and managing fish stocks.
Markets have also helped to reduce air pollution at a quicker rate and lower cost than the use of regulatory measures alone. conservation of over 200,000 acres of wetlands have also been accomplished through the use of transferable quotas in the US.
“Because conservationists could bid for quotas, whalers could profit from them even without harvesting the animals,” the professors say, ”there are multiple challenges in getting such a scheme to work, including agreeing on sustainable quotas and on how shares should be allocated,”
“If quotas are set properly,” the authors suggest, “transactions would reduce the number of whales harvested, quite possibly to zero, unlike existing protocols, which seem to be increasing the catches.”
Are whaling quotas ethical?
The study team acknowledge that there will be those in the anti-whaling community and conservation community who do not believe that a price should be put on the head of a whale.
Whether it’s morally or ethically acceptable to put a price on the head of a whale one thing is certain, the $25 million a year currently being spent to end whaling is not working. Harvesting of whales is on an upwards trend having doubled over the last 20 years or so.
If legally binding quotas are set and traded then the conservation groups could save many more whales at a much lower price and that has to be good news.
But then again perhaps signing a cheque is not quite so good for fundraising than a picture of a small inflatable going head to head with a whaling ship?
Incoming search terms:
- conservation science: a market approach to saving the whales
- alternatives to whale quotas
- cost in whaling
- cost of saving whale
- cost of whaling
