Chapter IV 



INTERNATIONAL ASPECTS OF MARINE MAMMAL 

 PROTECTION AND CONSERVATION 



Section 108 of the Marine Mammal Protection Act 

 directs that the Departments of Commerce, the 

 Interior, and State, in consultation with the Marine 

 Mammal Commission, seek to further the protection 

 and conservation of marine mammals under existing 

 international agreements and take such initiatives as 

 may be necessary to negotiate additional agreements 

 required to achieve the purposes of the Act. In 

 addition, section 202 of the Marine Mammal Protec- 

 tion Act directs that the Marine Mammal Conunission 

 recommend to the Secretary of State and other Federal 

 officials appropriate policies regarding international 

 arrangements for the protection and conservation of 

 marine mammals. 



The Commission's activities in 1991 with respect 

 to the International Whaling Commission, alleviating 

 the widespread impacts of high seas driftnet fisheries 

 on marine resources, the conservation and protection 

 of marine mammals in the Southern Ocean, and the 

 Convention for the Protection and Development of the 

 Marine Environment of the Wider Caribbean Region 

 are discussed below. 



International Whaling Commission 



During 1991, representatives of the Marine Mam- 

 mal Commission and its Committee of Scientific 

 Advisors consulted with the U.S. Commissioner to the 

 International Whaling Commission (IWC) in prepara- 

 tion for the 43rd annual meeting of the IWC. They 

 participated in meetings of the IWC and its Scientific 

 Committee and worked with the U.S. Commissioner 

 to the IWC, the Department of State, and others on 

 related post-meeting actions. Activities taking place 

 before, during, and after the 1991 annual meeting of 

 the IWC are discussed below. 



Pre-Meeting Activities 



Management Procedure Workshop — At its 1982 

 meeting, the IWC adopted a resolution establishing a 

 moratorium on commercial whaling, effective with the 

 1985/1986 pelagic and the 1986 coastal whaling 

 seasons. The moratorium provision called on the 

 IWC to, among other things, undertake a compre- 

 hensive assessment of the effects of this decision on 

 whale stocks and to consider alternative management 

 procedures. To guide its Scientific Committee in this 

 task, in 1987 the IWC set forth the following three 

 general management objectives: (1) the risk of 

 depleting a stock below some chosen level (e.g., some 

 proportion of its carrying capacity) must be accept- 

 able; (2) catch limits should be stable over time to 

 allow orderly development of the whaling industry; 

 and (3) catch limits should seek to achieve the highest 

 possible continuing yield from the stock. 



The IWC Scientific Committee held a series of 

 workshops to examine five potential revised manage- 

 ment procedures to assess the status of whale stocks 

 and to serve as the basis for recommending catch 

 quotas. The fourth workshop, held on 5-12 December 

 1990 in Tokyo, Japan, was convened to review results 

 of tests using the five candidate management proce- 

 dures and to identify ftirther tests to be undertaken 

 and reviewed during the 1991 meeting of the Scienti- 

 fic Committee. During the December workshop, a 

 recommended approach for comparing the five candi- 

 date procedures was developed to help meet the goal 

 of presenting a recommended "best" procedure to the 

 Scientific Committee and the IWC at their 1991 

 meetings. 



Although the United States did not participate 

 directly in developing the candidate procedures. 



109 



