E-4 



The SCAR working group on Biology, in the early 1970's 

 created a subcommittee on the marine living resources of the 

 Southern Ocean which was later upgraded to the Working Group 

 on the Living Resources of the Southern Ocean. 



The formation of this Working Group responded to a num- 

 ber of factors including the increasing interest displayed 

 by a number of nations in the potentially harvestable resour- 

 ces of the Southern Ocean -such as Japan and the Soviet Union 

 (and later Poland and West Germany) and specifically focusing 

 upon krill, and general interest in various international bod- 

 ies with increasing world needs for protein. The SCAR Working 

 Group began to recommend or to develop recommendations for the 

 coordination of international cooperation in the study of the 

 living resources of the Southern Ocean, with a view to provid- 

 ing an adequate data base and development and implementation 

 of conservation measures. 



The Working Group recognized that the Southern Ocean, with 

 its rather short food chain and unique ecosystem, was an area 

 in which the conservation measures might well be needed sooner 

 rather than later. 



This issue of the marine living resources of the Southern 

 Ocean was discussed at the Seventh Consultative Meeting, and 

 again at the Eighth Consultative Meeting in 1975, at which 

 time a specific recommendation was developed -- among other 

 things, calling for expanded efforts by the consultative par- 

 ties to conduct research into these resources and to further 

 international collaboration and cooperation in such matters. 

 The recommendation specifically welcomed the possible conven- 

 ing, under the auspices of SCAR, of a conference on marine 

 living resources, which was held later in 1976 at Woods Hole, 

 Massachusetts, data from which is providing important 

 contributions to our scientific knowledge of Antarctic marine 

 living resources. 



The Eighth Consultative Meeting in 1975 recommended that 

 the question be kept on the agenda and be discussed at the 

 Ninth Consultative Meeting. It was, at the Ninth Consultative 

 Meeting and in several preparatory meetings leading up thereto. 

 At those meetings (both the preparatory meetings and the Consul- 

 tative itself) the representatives of the 13 Consultative Par- 

 ties all shared a view that the development of some arrange- 

 ment or measures to provide for the conservation, or steps 

 leading to the conservation, of Antarctic marine living resour- 

 ces was a matter of some urgency. 



And this led to the recommendation with which I began — 

 Recommendation IX-2 on Antarctic Marine Living Resources. 



