(from "Kujira to Inbou" (Whales and Plots), by Yoshito Umezaki, 1986)

Note:
Remarks starting with an "*" are mine.

In June of 1971, a year before the Stockholm conference, the US government invited whale scientists from all over the world and held a symposium. The place was the international conference hall in Skyland, a town in Shenandoah National Park, Virginia. It was planned by the Secretary of the Interior W.J. Hickel, and hosted not only by the US government, but also by the Smithsonian Institution, the Zoological Society of New York, and the International Biology Program^(*1). It was also supported by seven organizations such as the Department of Commerce, National Science Fund, National Audubon Society, and World Wildlife Foundation. These non-governmental organizations were acknowledged not only in the USA, but also in the world.

Thirty-four scientists were invited from ten countries. Major scientists such as J.L. McHugh (USA), D.W. Rice (USA), D.G. Chapman (USA), R. Gambell (UK), Y. Fukuda (Japan), S. Ohsumi (Japan), T. Doi (Japan), J.L. Bannister (Australia), P.B. Best (South Africa), and K.R. Allen (New Zealand) were all invited. Although twenty observers were also invited, people from anti-whaling organizations such as "Friends of the Earth" and "Project Jonah" were not invited by the International Biology Program which served as Secretariat. The aim was to discuss the whale resource status and management from a purely scientific point of view.

The essence of the results of the symposium were as follows.

1. Status of whale resources are divided into two groups, one is those depleted to the level which disallows a sustainable commercial catch, and the other is those which allow a sustainable commercial catch (this group also consists of those below or above the proper population level).

2. The first group has already been protected by the IWC and the protection should be continued until they recover to above the proper level.

3. In the second group, catch limits should be regulated to those which are below the proper Level, and should be managed so that their population will exceed the proper Level.

Also some requests for the IWC were agreed such as, a) introduction of international observer scheme for the observation of infractions, b) extension of scientific research of whale resources, c) abolishment of the BWU (Blue Whale Unit) and introduction of catch limits for each species.

"Hickel had wished that consensus would be achieved in the symposium on the moratorium of commercial whaling. He intended to attend the Stockholm conference with it an accomplished fact. However, no scientist spoke of the moratorium. Not only Hickel - planner of the symposium - but also the US government officials in charge of the symposium were very much disappointed.
- Hideo Ohmura

Dr Ohmura - chief of the Whale Research Institute - was a pioneer of whale studies in Japan, and also is an honorary member of the International Biology Program. Although he did not attend the Shenandoah Symposium, he, with Dr Ohsumi, submitted the paper on the biological study of whales in the North Pacific.

Somehow the report of the symposium was published in 1974, three years later. This is quite unusual for an international symposium. Also, it did not contain any deliberation on the analysis and management of whale resources. It only contains presentations by attendees and papers by non-attendees. This was obviously intended by Hickel who was disappointed by the result of the symposium.

After the Shenandoah Symposium, there was one more important event.

1 Since I could not find exact name in dictionaries, I literally translated the Japanese words as "International Biology Program".

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