MARINE MAMMAL COMMISSION - Annual Report for 1995 



participated in both sessions. As a separate matter, a 

 third intersessional meeting in which U.S. represen- 

 tatives participated was held to assess the abundance 

 of minke whales in the North Atlantic Ocean. As 

 discussed below, reports of both these meetings were 

 also considered during the course of the 1995 IWC 

 meeting. 



The 1995 Meetings of the IWC and 

 its Scientific Committee 



The 47th annual meeting of the IWC was held in 

 Dublin, Ireland, on 29 May - 2 June 1995. Working 

 groups and subcommittees met on 22-27 May. The 

 Scientific Committee met on 8-20 May. The principal 

 issues considered were noted earlier. The results are 

 summarized below. 



The Moratorium on Taking — In 1982 the IWC 

 agreed to a moratorium on commercial whaling, 

 which entered into effect during the 1985 pelagic and 

 1986 coastal whaling seasons. As it has done at each 

 of its meetings since 1982, the IWC decided to take 

 no action at its 1995 meeting to lift the moratorium. 

 It adopted a resolution calling on Norway to withdraw 

 its objection to the moratorium and to halt commercial 

 whaling, which it had resumed in 1993. (Norway 

 objected to the moratorium when it was adopted in 

 1982 and, under the terms of the Whaling Conven- 

 tion, is not required to comply with it.) 



Assessments of Whale Stocks — Norway's com- 

 mercial whalers concentrate their efforts on the North 

 Atlantic minke whale stock. In this regard, the 

 Scientific Committee's assessment of the size of that 

 stock was one of the most significant matters consid- 

 ered at the 1995 IWC meeting. The Scientific Com- 

 mittee concluded that the 1992 estimate of abundance, 

 which had been used by Norway to estimate an 

 allowable take level, was no longer valid. Further- 

 more, the Scientific Committee indicated that it 

 currently was unable to provide an acceptable abun- 

 dance estimate and therefore could not use the IWC's 

 Revised Management Procedure to calculate catch 

 limits for that stock. 



To try to resolve the scientific uncertainties and 

 develop an acceptable abundance estimate for minke 



whales in the North Atlantic, the IWC agreed to hold 

 two workshops before its 1996 meetings. In addition, 

 Norway offered to host a separate intersessional 

 meeting of the Scientific Committee to ensure that an 

 acceptable abundance estimate would be produced 

 prior to the 1996 commercial hunt, which was sched- 

 uled to begin before the 1996 IWC meeting. Finally, 

 the Commission also authorized the chairman of the 

 Scientific Committee to decide whether to hold an 

 intersessional meeting of the Scientific Committee 

 after the first intersessional workshop. 



With regard to other whale stocks, the Scientific 

 Committee reviewed additional data on the structure 

 of the North Pacific minke whale stock, which is one 

 of the stocks subject to Japanese research whaling, 

 and it began a comprehensive assessment of North 

 Pacific Bryde's whales, which is another stock of 

 whaling interest to Japan. The Scientific Committee 

 also received the report of the intersessional work- 

 shop, hosted by the United States, on the potential use 

 of genetic data to resolve problems of stock identity. 

 During the Scientific Committee meeting, scientists 

 from the Russian Federation also provided additional 

 details on the former Soviet Union's massive under- 

 reporting of whale catches in the southern hemisphere 

 since the end of World War II. 



The Revised Management Scheme — As noted in 

 the Marine Mammal Commission's previous annual 

 reports, the ftVC's Scientific Committee was asked in 

 1986 to develop a scientifically based method for 

 determining commercial whaling catch levels that 

 would have a low probability of adversely affecting 

 harvested whale stocks. At its 1994 meeting the r\VC 

 accepted a Revised Management Procedure recom- 

 mended by the Scientific Committee to achieve this 

 purpose. The IAVC also endorsed guidelines suggested 

 by the Scientific Committee to conduct and analyze 

 the results of abundance surveys and to collect and 

 analyze related information not required as direct 

 input to use the Revised Management Procedure. 



False reporting of the number and species of 

 whales taken and the failure of some IWC members to 

 enforce compliance with conservation measures 

 adopted by the IWC were important factors that led to 

 overexploitation and severe depletion of many whale 

 stocks. Therefore, the United States and most other 



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