On 16 May 20004, the International Day of the Baltic Harbour Porpoise will be observed for the second time in countries around the Baltic Sea. The UN Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans of the Baltic and North Seas (UNEP/ASCOBANS) has declared the third Sunday in May of each year International Day of the Baltic Harbour Porpoise to raise awareness of the plight of the only cetacean species native to the Baltic Sea.

The International Day of the Baltic Harbour Porpoise, which will be observed with special exhibitions, events or programs in a number of venues in the Baltic region, such as Hel Marine Station, Hel, Poland, the Lithuanian Sea Museum, Klaipeda, Lithuania, the Natural History Museum, Riga, Latvia, Särkänniemi Dolphinarium, Tampere, Finland, the Swedish Museum of Natural History, Stockholm, Sweden, and the Zoological Museum Alexander Koenig, Bonn, Germany.

The Zoological Museum Alexander Koenig will display the installation "Delphinidae, Delphinoidae" by the German artist Jörg Mazur. The installation measures 14.5 m by 3 m and consists of sculptures of 45 species of small cetaceans. It will be on display at the Museum until 19 September 2004. It will be opened at 11.00 a.m. on 16 May 2004. The artist will be present. Dr. Karl Hermann Kock of the German Federal Agency for Fisheries, Hamburg, will make a presentation on harbour porpoises.

The ASCOBANS Secretariat and Hel Marine Station have cooperated in producing a music CD entitled "Project C". Launched at the 4th Meeting of the Parties in Esbjerg, Denmark (19-22 August 2003), the CD comprises nine original compositions by Anna Nacher and Marek Styczynski, combining traditional instruments from around the Baltic region with cetacean vocalizations.

For NGOs, the CD is obtainable from the Secretariat at below cost price. Organisations wishing to purchase the CD for resale for non-profit purposes are invited to contact the Secretariat.

A sample track from one of the previous CDs produced by Anna Nacher and Marek Styczynski can be found on this website (cf. "About Small Cetaceans").

11th Meeting of the Advisory Committee, Jastrzebia Góra, Poland, 27 - 29 April 2004

At the invitation of the Polish Ministry of the Environment and Hel Marine Station (University of Gdánsk), representatives of 8 North Sea and Baltic Parties, several Non-Party Range States and a large number of intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations met in Jastrzebia Góra, Poland, from 27 - 29 April 2004 for the 11th Meeting of the Advisory Committee to the Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans of the Baltic and North Seas (UNEP/ASCOBANS).

The Advisory Committee, which convenes annually, addressed a wide range of issues. As always, bycatch and bycatch reduction ranged high on the Agreement's agenda. Among the topics the meeting dealt with are the implementation of the ASCOBANS Recovery Plan (Jastarnia Plan). for Baltic harbour porpoises, which received strong support form Parties at the 4th Meeting of the Parties, held in Esbjerg, Denmark, in August 2003. A first meeting of the so-called "Jastarnia Group" is now slated for September 2004. The Advisory Committee also discussed various porjects related to the implementation of the Jastarnia Plan and suggested providing financial support for some of these projects. The elaboration of a recovery plan for harbour porpoises in the North Sea, as called for by the Bergen Declaration adopted at the 5th International Conference on the Protection of the North Sea (Bergen, Norway, 20-21 March 2002), was also discussed. A preliminary draft of such a plan was presented to the meeting. The draft is considered a starting point with a need for considerable further input. The Meeting stressed that the involvement of the Non-Party North Sea countries France and Norway in the elaboration of the plan was crucial. Moreover, the Meeting charted the course for the Agreement in its new, extended Agreement area (cf. MOP 4 Res.4). Scientific issues, such as the planned new large-scale abundance surves ("SCANS II) were also on the agenda.

This successful meeting is a further example of the excellent cooperation between UNEP/ASCOBANS and Poland, which is the first country to have hosted 2 ASCOBANS advisory Committee Meetings, the Fifth Meeting of the Advisory Committee having taken place in in Hel, Poland, in 1998. Moreover, the workshop leading to the final elaboration of the Jastarnia Plan was held in Jastarnia, Poland, in January 2002.