Technical Reports of the Ins�tute of Cetacean Research (2023)

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International meetingsPar�cipa�on of scien�sts from the Ins�tute of Cetacean Research inInterna�onal Mee�ngs in 2023
Annual mee�ng of the Interna�onal Whaling
Commission Scien�ﬁc Commi�ee (IWC SC)
The Interna�onal Whaling Commission (IWC) is an interna�onal body set up by the terms of the Interna�onal
Conven�on for the Regula�on of Whaling (ICRW), which
was signed in Washington, D.C., United States, on 2 December 1946, to ʻprovide for the proper conserva�on ofwhale stocks and thus make possible the orderly development of the whaling industryʼ. One of the important
subsidiary bodies of the IWC is its Scien�ﬁc Commi�ee(SC), which meets annually.
The 2023 mee�ng of the IWC SC (SC69A) was heldfrom 24 April to 6 May in Bled, Slovenia. This was the ﬁrst
in-person Commi�ee mee�ng since 2019 (SC68A). Fourscien�sts from the Ins�tute of Cetacean Research (ICR)
par�cipated in the mee�ngs (Pastene, Tamura, Matsuokaand Katsumata). They presented a total of 10 documents:
six documents at the Standing Working Group on Abundance Es�mates, Stock Status and Interna�onal Cruises(ASI), one document at the Working Group on StockDeﬁni�on and DNA tes�ng (SDDNA), one document atthe Sub-Commi�ee on Conserva�on Management Plans(CMP) and two general documents (O: PICES Observer
Report and Japanʼs Scien�ﬁc Progress Reports).
The 2024 IWC SC mee�ng (SC69B) will be held in Bled,
Slovenia from 22 April to 4 May.
The report of the IWC SC mee�ng can be found on theMee�ng of the Interna�onal Whaling Commission (IWC)
Scien�ﬁc Commi�ee (SC69A) held at the Rikli Hotel, Bled,
Slovenia.

website of the IWC (h�ps://archive.iwc.int/pages/view.
php?ref= 20108&k=).

Annual mee�ng of the Conven�on on the Conserva�on of Antarc�c Marine Living Resources–Working Group on Ecosystem Monitoring andManagement (CCAMLR-EMM)
The Conven�on on the Conserva�on of Antarc�c MarineLiving Resources (CCAMLR) is part of the Antarc�c Treaty
System. The Conven�on was opened for signature on
1 August 1980 and entered into force on 7 April 1982,
thereby establishing the Commission for the Conserva�on of Antarc�c Marine Living Resources. Its goal is topreserve marine life and environmental integrity in andnear Antarc�ca. It was established in large part in response to concerns that an increase in krill catches in theSouthern Ocean could have a serious impact on popula�ons of other marine life, which are dependent upon
krill for food. The CCAMLR has a Scien�ﬁc Commi�eeand several Working Groups. One of these is the Working Group on Ecosystem Monitoring and Management(EMM), which meets annually.
The 2023 mee�ng of the EMM Working Group washeld from 3 to 14 July in Kochi, India. The main itemson the mee�ng agenda were krill ﬁshery management,spa�al management and ecosystem monitoring. Under
the spa�al overlap analysis approach, several papers onmonitoring of krill-dependent predators including whales

The mee�ng of the Conserva�on of Antarc�c Marine Living
Resources (CCAMLR)- Ecosystem Monitoring and Management(EMM) Working Group in Kochi, India.
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Technical Reports of the Ins�tute of Cetacean Research (2023)

in western Antarc�c were presented. Isoda from the ICR
par�cipated in the mee�ng, presen�ng the documenten�tled ʻSummary of the dedicated sigh�ng survey under
the Japanese Abundance and Stock structure Surveys inthe Antarc�c (JASS-A) in four austral summer seasons(2019/2020–2022/2023)ʼ.
The report of the mee�ng can be found on the websiteof the CCAMLR (h�ps://mee�ngs.ccamlr.org/en/wg-emm2023).

Scien�ﬁc Commi�ee on Antarc�c Research(SCAR) Biology Symposium 2023
The Scien�ﬁc Commi�ee on Antarc�c Research (SCAR)
is a thema�c organiza�on of the Interna�onal Science
Council (ISC), and it was created in 1958. SCAR is charged
with ini�a�ng, developing and coordina�ng high quality
interna�onal scien�ﬁc research in the Antarc�c region(including the Southern Ocean), and on the role of theAntarc�c region in the Earth system. SCAR provides objec�ve and independent scien�ﬁc advice to the Antarc�c
Treaty Consulta�ve Mee�ngs and other organiza�ons
such as the United Na�ons Framework Conven�on on
Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Intergovernmental
Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) on issues of science andconserva�on aﬀec�ng the management of Antarc�caand the Southern Ocean and on the role of the Antarc�cregion in the Earth system.
The XIII SCAR Biology Symposium was held from 31
July to 4 August 2023 in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Katsumata from ICR par�cipated in the mee�ng. He madean oral presenta�on of the study ʻWide range distribu�onof baleen whales in the Antarc�c based on the data fromthe Japanese long-term ship-based monitoringʼ.

Presenta�on at the Scien�ﬁc Commi�ee on Antarc�c Research(SCAR) Biology Symposium in Christchurch, New Zealand.
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The 13th Interna�onal Mammalogical Congress(IMC-13)The IMC-13 mee�ng was co-hosted by the American Society of Mammologists and the Interna�onal Federa�onof Mammologists. This mee�ng was held from 14 July to20 July 2023 in Anchorage, Alaska, USA. Bando and Kuno
from the ICR were co-authors of a poster presenta�onto the mee�ng en�tled ʻSexual dimorphism of the laryngeal sacs of Bryde's whales and its rela�onship with theirsexual statusʼ.

Poster presenta�on at the Interna�onal Federa�on of Mammologists (IMC-13) mee�ng in Alaska, USA.

Annual mee�ng of the North Atlan�c Marine Mammal Commission (NAMMCO) Scien�ﬁcCommi�ee (SC)The North Atlan�c Marine Mammal Commission(NAMMCO) is an interna�onal body for coopera�on onthe conserva�on, management and study of marinemammals in the North Atlan�c. The NAMMCO Agreement was signed in Nuuk, Greenland on 9 April 1992 byNorway, Iceland, Greenland and the Faroe Islands, andentered into force on 8 July 1992. The agreement focuseson modern approaches to the study of the marine ecosystem as a whole, and to be�er understanding the roleof marine mammals in the ecosystem. NAMMCO has aScien�ﬁc Commi�ee (SC), which meets annually.
The 2023 NAMMCO SC (SC29) mee�ng was heldfrom 23 to 26 January in Copenhagen, Denmark. Fourscien�sts from ICR par�cipated in the mee�ng (Pastene,Tamura, Konishi and Inoue) as observers from Japan.
They presented the following documents: the 2021–2022
Japan progress report on large cetacean research, the2019–2020 Japan progress report on small cetacean re-Participation of scientists from the Institute of Cetacean Research in International Meetings in 2023

search, proposal for star�ng a collabora�ve study to further understand the role of baleen whales in the western
North Paciﬁc ecosystem and the 2021–2022 report on
satellite tagging experiments at the Ins�tute of Cetacean
Research. The report of the mee�ng can be found on thewebsite of NAMMCO (h�ps://nammco.no/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/report-sc29_16022023_rev.pdf).

ing as members of the Steering Group. The 6th MINTAG
mee�ng was held on 10 October 2023 online and twoscien�sts from ICR (Pastene and Konishi) par�cipated themee�ng. Konishi presented an update of the Japaneseeﬀorts for tagging ﬁve ﬁn whales in June 2023. The ac�vi�es of the MINTAG project can be found on the website(h�ps://mintag-project.com/).

Annual mee�ng of the North Paciﬁc Marine Science Organiza�on (PICES)Scien�sts par�cipa�ng in the 2023 North Atlan�c Marine
Mammal Commission (NAMMCO) Scien�ﬁc Commi�ee meeting (SC29) in the Greenlandic Representa�on, Copenhagen,Denmark.

NAMMCO-Japan MINTAG project mee�ng
NAMMCO and Japan have agreed on a collabora�ve
project to develop a new satellite tag suited for use on
fast-swimming baleen whales which are of most interest
to NAMMCO countries and Japan (MINTAG). The project
started in 2022 and will run for ﬁve years. The project isdivided into phases: development phase, tes�ng phase,
deployment-data collec�on-analyses phase, and publica�on-ﬁnal repor�ng- workshop phase. The project is led bya Steering Group composed of scien�sts from NAMMCO
countries and Japan, the Secretariat of NAMMCO and theFisheries Agency of Japan (FAJ).
The mee�ng of the MINTAG Steering Group was heldon 24 January 2023 during the NAMMCO SC mee�ng inCopenhagen. The main topics of the mee�ng were thetender material for tags, the web blog and the schedule
for the test tagging experiments. Two scien�sts fromthe ICR (Pastene and Konishi) par�cipated in the meet-

The North Paciﬁc Marine Science Organiza�on (PICES) isan intergovernmental science organiza�on established in1992. It aims to promote and coordinate marine scien�ﬁcresearch in the North Paciﬁc Ocean and its adjacent seas,and to provide a mechanism for informa�on and dataexchange among scien�sts in its member countries. Itspresent members are Canada, Japan, People's Republic ofChina, Republic of Korea, the Russian Federa�on, and theUnited States of America.
The 2023 mee�ng of the PICES was held in Sea�le,
USA from 23 to 27 October. The business mee�ng of theMarine Bird and Mammals (S-MBM) sec�on was held on
24 September 2023. One scien�st from ICR par�cipatedin the mee�ng (Tamura) introducing the observer reportof IWC SC mee�ng. The report of the PICES mee�ng canbe found on the website of PICES (h�ps://mee�ngs.pices.
int/).

The mee�ng of the 2023 North Paciﬁc Marine Science Organiza�on(PICES) in Sea�le, USA.

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