2 July 2025: Report of the Marine Mammal Welfare Workshop is now available!

On March 24, 2025, hunters, veterinarians, and decision-makers from 11 regions, gathered in Tromsø (Norway) to tackle a shared priority: improving animal welfare in marine mammal hunting.

Hosted by NAMMCO and the Fisheries Agency of Japan, the workshop focused on exchanging knowledge on successful practices, challenges, and areas for improvement, with a special focus on reducing the time to death and minimising animal loss. Participants shared best practices, highlighted the importance of using the best available equipment, and called for better training and data collection.

While progress has been made in several regions, the group agreed that more work is needed. Key recommendations included establishing a common framework for monitoring welfare outcomes, ensuring the use of the best available equipment with stable access to it, providing adequate and accessible training for hunters, and involving them in the development of new hunting methods and monitoring programmes.

The report is now available and can be accessed here: https://nammco.no/conferences-symposia-and-workshops/