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International Whaling Commission (IWC) 



Representatives of the Marine Mammal Commission consulted 

 with the U.S. Commissioner to the International Whaling 

 Commission and others in preparation for the Thirty-fifth 

 Annual Meeting of IWC in Brighton, England, and attended the 

 meetings of the IWC and its Scientific Committee during 1983. 

 The Commission's activities in 1983 regarding the bowhead 

 whale issue as they relate to the IWC are discussed in 

 Chapter VI. of this Report. A summary of the Commission's 

 activities relating to other aspects of IWC action in 1983 

 is set forth below. 



The July 1983 Meeting 



Representatives of 36 of the 40 member nations 

 participated in the July 1983 meeting of the IWC. A summary 

 of the major actions taken at the meeting follows. 



Cessation of Commercial Whaling — As discussed in the 

 Commission's previous Annual Report, the IWC adopted at its 

 July 1982 meeting a provision banning commercial whaling by 

 all member nations beginning with the 1985/86 pelagic and 

 1986 coastal whaling seasons and four nations (Japan, Norway, 

 Peru, and the U.S.S.R.) filed objections to the cessation 

 provision, thereby removing the obligation under the 

 Convention for the Regulation of Whaling to comply with that 

 provision. 



At the 1983 meeting, there were no proposals to modify 

 the text of the cessation and it therefore remained unchanged, 

 In addition, members took several encouraging steps toward 

 ultimate implementation of the cessation during the course of 

 the meeting. Representatives of Peru withdrew their govern- 

 ment's objection to the cessation, thereby joining other 

 nations whose citizens currently conduct whaling operations 

 but will cease commercial whaling when the cessation comes 

 into effect. Representatives of Chile announced that their 

 government had prohibited all whaling by its citizens as of 

 July 1983, thereby voluntarily implementing the cessation in 

 advance of its effective date. Finally, the IWC agreed to a 

 request from Japan to initiate discussions on the concept, 

 methods, and procedures for a comprehensive assessment of 

 whale populations and a consideration of the feasibility of 

 conducting such an assessment by 1985. By terms of the 

 cessation decision, such an assessment must be undertaken by 

 1990. The IWC established a working group for these purposes 

 which will be convened by Japan before the 1984 meeting. 



