Under IWC rules of procedure, any Commissioner may request 

 a postal vote on a proposed action by the IWC between its 

 annual meetings. In view of the results of the Scientific 

 Committee's review, the Commissioner for the United Kingdom 

 submitted to the IWC Secretariat a proposed resolution recom- 

 mending that the Government of Japan refrain from issuing a 

 special permit for the revised research proposal until identi- 

 fied concerns of the Committee have been addressed to its 

 satisfaction. The proposed resolution was subsequently cir- 

 culated to the IWC with a request that votes on the matter be 

 returned by 14 February 1988. 



At the end of 1987, the Committee's report and the 

 resolution proposed by the United Kingdom were being reviewed 

 by members of the International Whaling Commission, including 

 the U.S. IWC Commissioner. In addition, the Japanese whaling 

 fleet's factory ship left port in late December and catcher 

 boats were expected to follow shortly for the purpose of 

 carrying out the planned research. Therefore, the Department 

 of Commerce, the Marine Mammal Commission, and other involved 

 Federal agencies were monitoring developments closely at the 

 end of the year. In the event that Japan permits whales to 

 be taken in early 1988 under the revised whale research program, 

 the Secretary of Commerce will make a decision as to whether 

 Japan should be certified under the Pelly and Packwood-Magnuson 

 Amendments as having allowed whaling which diminishes the 

 effectiveness of the IWC's conservation program. 



Litigation — As noted in previous Annual Reports, a 

 number of environmental groups filed suit in late 1984 seeking 

 to prevent the Secretaries of Commerce and State from entering 

 into an agreement negotiated with the Government of Japan on 

 commercial whaling. Under terms of the agreement, which had 

 been negotiated in November 1984, the United States agreed 

 not to certify Japan under the Pelly and Packwood-Magnuson 

 Amendments in return for a commitment that Japan would phase 

 out all commercial whaling by 1988 and adhere to the moratorium 

 provision adopted by the IWC. The Supreme Court issued a 

 final ruling in favor the Secretaries on 30 June 1986. 



In response to recent actions to authorize the Japanese 

 whale research program mentioned above, environmental groups 

 involved in the earlier litigation sought to have the 1986 

 Supreme Court ruling reconsidered. In its motion, which was 

 filed on 23 September 1987, the environmental groups claimed 

 that the defendants had misrepresented the agreement to dis- 

 continue commercial whaling by not disclosing that the Japanese 

 would continue to take whales for scientific research. They 

 claimed that this prevented them from fully and fairly present- 

 ing their case and had misled the Supreme Court. They also 

 alleged that newly discovered information supported their 

 motion for relief. On 18 November 1987, the District Court 



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