International Whaling Commission (IWC) 
Representatives of the Marine Mammal Commission consulted 
with the U.S. Commissioner to the IWC and others in preparation 
for the thirty-second annual meeting of the IWC in Brighton, 
England (21-26 July 1980) and attended the meetings of the 
Iwc and its Scientific Committee during 1980. The Commission's 
activities in 1980 relating to the IWC and the bowhead whale 
issue are discussed in Chapter VI. A summary of the Commission's 
activities relating to other aspects of IWC action in 1980 
is set forth below. 
July 1980 Meeting 
The decisions of the IWC members at their July 1980 
meeting resulted in the continuation of the reduction in the 
total number of whales that may be killed throughout the 
world and the passage of several measures designed to further 
improve the IWC's management regime. The number of member 
nations increased from 23 to 24 since the 1979 meeting. 
Panama withdrew from the Convention in June 1980, while Oman 
and Switzerland, both non-whaling nations, joined the IWC 
and participated in the 1980 meeting. 
As in previous years, the major issue relating to 
commercial whaling before the IWC in 1980 was the proposed 
moratorium which was presented to the members in the form of 
two proposals. The U.S. and France proposed a worldwide 
moratorium on all commercial whaling, to be implemented 
immediately and to last until serious flaws in the design 
and practice of the IWC's conservation program were remedied, 
while the Seychelles proposed a worldwide moratorium on 
sperm whaling. The first proposal for a moratorium on all 
commercial whaling. received the necessary simple majority in 
Technical Committee but failed to gain the necessary three- 
fourths majority in plenary session (13 in favor, 9 opposed, 
and 2 abstaining) and was therefore not adopted. Following 
the failure of the proposal for a moratorium on all commercial 
whaling, the Technical Committee considered and passed by 
the necessary simple majority the proposed three-year moratorium 
on sperm whaling. That proposal and an amended proposal to 
delay the effective date of the moratorium until the 1981/82 
season in the southern hemisphere and the 1982 season in the 
northern hemisphere, however, both failed to receive the 
necessary three-fourths majority in plenary session (14 in 
favor, 6 opposed, and 4 abstentions) and they were therefore 
not adopted. 
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