West Greenland minke whales (taken by West 

 Greenlanders) : a two-year block quota of 190 

 whales for the years 1990-1991, with a maximum 

 limit of 100 whales in any one year; and 



West Greenland fin whales (taken by West 

 Greenlanders) : a two-year block quota of 42 

 whales for the years 1990-1991, with a 

 maximum limit of 23 whales in any one year. 



No changes were made in aboriginal subsistence catch limits 

 previously established for the Bering-Chukchi-Beaufort Seas stock 

 of bowhead whales taken by Alaskan Eskimos. No more than 44 

 bowhead whales may be struck or 41 whales landed annually from 

 1989 to 1991, except that up to three strikes not used in the 

 years 1989 or 1990 may be reallocated to the following year. 

 Previously adopted catch limits also were left unchanged for 

 eastern North Pacific Ocean gray whales taken on behalf of Soviet 

 aboriginal natives and by Alaskan Eskimos (up to 179 whales per 

 year through 1991) and North Atlantic Ocean humpback whales taken 

 by Bequians of St. Vincent and The Grenadines (three whales per 

 year through 1989/90) . 



Special Permits for Scientific Research — The IWC's whale 

 conservation program provides that member nations may issue 

 special permits to their citizens to kill whales for purposes of 

 scientific research. However, members also must submit certain 

 information on proposed research activities to the IWC and its 

 Scientific Committee to provide them an opportunity to review and 

 comment on proposed permits. In this regard, the IWC adopted a 

 resolution at its 1987 meeting identifying criteria to be used in 

 reviewing research proposals that involve killing whales, and 

 calling upon members to refrain from issuing special permits for 

 research that does not meet those criteria. Although advice 

 adopted by the IWC in the form of a resolution reflects the 

 majority view of voting IWC members, the rules of the IWC provide 

 that such advice is not binding upon contracting governments. 



At the 1989 IWC meeting, Iceland, Japan, and Norway 

 submitted proposed research programs, involving the killing of 

 whales, for review by the Scientific Committee and the IWC. The 

 Icelandic proposal extended a research program that was begun in 

 1986 and was subsequently modified in response to comments by the 

 IWC and others. Icelandic research considered at the 1989 

 meeting involved killing 80 fin whales and 10 sei whales. During 

 the course of the meeting, however, representatives of Iceland 

 announced that: Iceland would take no whales for scientific 

 purposes in 1990; it had no plans to take whales for scientific 

 research after 1990; and it would not issue a special permit to 

 take sei whales in 1989. 



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