Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans of the Baltic, North East Atlantic, Irish and North Seas

ASCOBANS
Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans of the Baltic, North East Atlantic, Irish and North Seas
	ASCOBANS Official Logo
Type	Agreement
Signed	17 March 1992
Location	New York, US
Effective	29 March 1994
Condition	Ratification by 6 range states
Signatories	6
Parties	10
Depositary	Secretary-General of the United Nations
Languages	Russian, German, French, English

Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans of the Baltic, North East Atlantic, Irish and North Seas, often abbreviated to ASCOBANS, is a regional agreement on the protection of small cetaceans that was concluded as the Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans of the Baltic and North Seas under the auspices of the UNEP Convention on Migratory Species, or Bonn Convention, in September 1991 and came into force in March 1994. In February 2008, an extension of the agreement area came into force which changed the name to “Agreement on the Conservation of Small Cetaceans of the Baltic, North East Atlantic, Irish and North Seas”. ASCOBANS covers all species of toothed whales (Odontoceti) in the Agreement Area, with the exception of the sperm whale (Physeter macrocephalus).