446 



Appendix B 

 Introduced : March 3, 1971. 

 Referred : Resources. 



In the House by Specking, Bradner, Guess, Haugen, Meland, Moses, Swanson, 

 Tillion and Whittaker. 



House Joint Resolution No. 37 in the Lbxjislature of the State of Alaska, 



7th Legislature, First Session 



relating to the PRESE31VATI0N OP WHALES 



Be it resolved, hy the Legislature of the State of Alaska: 



Whereas, but for the insatiability of the world's whalers during the past two 

 decades, the sustainable yield today is but a shadow of what it could be if 

 the stocks were given the opportunity to rebuild ; and 



Whereas this fact is particularly illustrated by the fact that the harvest 

 in the antarctic fishery has dropped in a dozen years from two-thirds of the 

 total catch to one-tenth ; and 



Whereas the quotas receiving tacit, if not explicit approval by the International 

 Whaling Commission have contributed to the decimation of the antarctic fishery 

 and unless conservation measures are immediately acted ui>on, the Pacific and 

 arctic fisheries will also be destroyed ; and 



Whereas, as an example of the latter statement, this year's quota set 

 by the North Pacific Commissioners for sperm whale is 240 per cent of the 

 sustainable yield as estimated by reputable scientists ; and 



Whereas all of these facts lead to the fact that unless stringent measures are 

 taken at once by the various whaling countries in concert, all si^ecies of the 

 great whales may very well be extinct in the immediate future ; be it 



Resolved By the Alaska State Legislature that the International Whaling Com- 

 mission immediately take action to prevent the further decimation of the great 

 whales of the world, including the setting of quotas ba.sed on a scientific sus- 

 tainable yield principle, and the implementation of the proposed International 

 Observer Scheme ; and be it further. 



Resolved That as a unilateral conservation measiire the Secretary of the 

 Department of the Interior is urgently requested to retain all eight of the great 

 whale species on the endangered species list, these being the Bowhead, Right, 

 Blue, Humpback, Gray, Finback, Sei and Sperm whales. 



Copies of this Resolution shall be sent to the Honorable Richard M. Nixon, 

 President of the United States ; the Honorable Rogers C. B. Morton, Secretary, 

 Department of the Interior; members of the International Whaling Commis- 

 sion ; the governments of the Soviet Union, Japan. Peru, South Africa, Norway, 

 Canada, Australia and Spain ; and to the Honorable Ted Stevens and the Hon- 

 orable Mike Gravel, U.S. Senators, and the Honorable Nick Begich, U.S. Repre- 

 sentative, members of the Ala.ska delegation in Congress. 



Mr. Burns. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



With regard to the statement of the State of Alaska, perhaps it is 

 worthwhile to cover some of the points that we feel are more signifi- 

 cant and briefly some of the general comments included in this posi- 

 tion statement. 



First of all, it is obvious it is rather encouraging to have a subcom- 

 mittee such as this and to see that people that are attending to testify, 

 and people in attendance are interested in legislation to protect some 

 of our great marine mammal resources. 



This, in itself, is a sign of changing times which is all for the better. 



It is obvious to everybody that Alaska has a major stake in the 

 marine mammal resources of this Nation and of the northern high 

 seas. 



Alaskans are directly dependent on a daily basis on marine mam- 

 mals. They utilize them because of the value that they place on these 

 marine mammals ; they are also very dependent upon the perpetuation 

 in a healthy state of the particular resources which I shall mention. 



