Highlights for Thursday, 23 April 2009
Working groups continued to meet throughout the day and AC members met in plenary in the late morning and afternoon.
The Working Group (WG) on Sharks continued to draft recommendations to the AC on shark species of concern, and the WG on NDFs elaborated elements of a draft decision for CoP on the issue. The WG on RST agreed to recommend that:
Huso huso (beluga) and
Tursiops aduncus (bottlenose dolphins) be included into the RST; and the Solomon Islands reduce its quota for
T. aduncus from 100 to ten specimens per year.
In the afternoon plenary, the AC heard the remainder of the regional reports, and the chairs of the WGs on Sturgeons, Transport, Nomenclature, and Ranching presented their WG reports. On sturgeons, the AC adopted the WG’s recommendations without amendment, endorsing the conclusions and recommendations of the FAO and CITES Technical Workshop on Stock Assessment and TAC Methodologies. On transport of live animals, the AC agreed to the WG’s recommendations, including that the WG should work intersessionally to proceed with replacing the “CITES Guidelines for transport and preparation for shipment of wild live animals and plants” with new guidelines for non-air transport of live specimens for consideration at CoP16. On nomenclature, the AC agreed to the WG’s recommendation that the Encyclopedia of Marine Mammals not be adopted as the standard reference for marine mammals, and to other WG recommendations with minor amendments. The AC began discussion of the WG’s recommendations on ranching, but was unable to conclude, with Europe, North America, IWMC and many others opposing any unintentional changes to Res.Conf. 9.24 (Criteria for amendment of Appendices I and II).