pressure on depleted harp seal stocks in the western North 

 Atlantic. Recognizing the need to provide a mechanism for 

 regulating a commercial sealing industry, should it develop, 

 the Antarctic Treaty Consultative Parties developed and, in 

 1972, concluded the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic 

 Seals. The Convention entered into force in March 1978 and, 

 to date, has been ratified by Argentina, Australia, Belgium, 

 Brazil, Chile, the Federal Republic of Germany, France, Japan, 

 Norway, Poland, South Africa, the Union of Soviet Socialist 

 Republics, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The Con- 

 vention prohibits commercial harvesting of fur seals, elephant 

 seals, and Ross seals. Permissible catch levels, sealing 

 areas, and sealing seasons for crabeater, leopard, and Weddell 

 seals are specified in an Annex. The Convention provides for 

 the establishment of a regulatory body and scientific advisory 

 committee, when and if commercial sealing is resumed, and 

 requires that Convention Parties annually provide information 

 on seals taken for either scientific or commercial purposes 

 to the other parties and to the Scientific Committee on An- 

 tarctic Research. It also provides that the Scientific Com- 

 mittee on Antarctic Research and the other contracting parties 

 must be notified at least 30 days in advance of departure 

 from their home ports of proposed sealing expeditions and 

 that the parties shall meet at least every five years to review 

 the operation of the Convention. 



Since the Convention was concluded in 1972, several hundred 

 seals have been killed each year for research purposes. The 

 Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research has established a 

 Group of Specialists on Seals to facilitate and coordinate 

 Antarctic seal research. This group has been charged with 

 compiling information and advising SCAR on measures needed to 

 improve information exchange and to facilitate stock assess- 

 ment and scientific research. Several parties to the Convention 

 have not met the reporting requirements and, at its meeting 

 in San Diego in June 1986, SCAR urged all of its national 

 committees to insure that data on seals killed or captured in 

 the Antarctic are submitted in the appropriate form and in a 

 timely fashion to the convener of the Group of Specialists to 

 enable SCAR to meet its commitments under the Seals Convention. 

 This problem was called to the attention of the Antarctic 

 Treaty Consultative Parties during their meeting in Rio de 

 Janeiro in October 1987. 



As noted in the Commission's previous Report, the Union 

 of Soviet Socialist Republics advised the United States and 

 other parties to the Seals Convention in October 1986 that it 

 was sending two sealing vessels to the Antarctic on 10 November 

 1986 to conduct experimental sealing. In a diplomatic note 

 dated 4 November 1987, the Soviet Union advised the United 

 States and other Convention parties that the two sealing vessels 

 had conducted experimental sealing in the Balleny Island area 



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