7. The Convention's Conservation Aims and Extra-Convention Discussions

(from "Chairman's Report of the Thirteenth Meeting")


The blue whale unit catch limit was suspended for two seasons following a decision reached by the Commission at its Twelfth Meeting. The Governments of Japan and the U.S.S.R. had registered objections to this amendment to the Schedule to the Convention and consequently continued to observe the previous total Antarctic quota of 15,000 blue whale units. The action by the Commission to suspend the blue whale unit catch limit for two seasons was taken in order to provide some degree of accommodation for the Governments of Norway and the Netherlands to rejoin the Convention while discussions could be held looking towards the development of a formula for an allocation or division of the total quota between the Antarctic whaling countries. During this period of suspension of the Antarctic quota, the Commission held to the view that all countries would adhere to all other conservation measures designated in the Schedule. As indicated earlier in this Report, the Government of Norway rejoined the Convention but that of the Netherlands remained a non-adherent.

In a statement presented by the Commissioner for the United Kingdom and in documents submitted by him to the Commission, an account was given of three meetings held in 1961, between representatives of the Antarctic whaling countries for the purpose of reaching agreement regarding a formula for division of the total permitted Antarctic quota. In November, 1958, the U.S.S.R. had agreed to accept an allocation of 20 per cent of the total Antarctic quota. At the 1961 meetings, discussions centred on devising a formula for division of the remaining 80 per cent between Japan, the Netherlands, Norway and the United Kingdom. At the first meeting held in 1961 representatives of these four countries participated with the U.S.S.R. represented by an observer.

In his review of the situation the Commissioner for the United Kingdom reported that at the last meeting held in May, between representatives of the four countries, agreement was very near on a formula for an allocation scheme which would give 33 per cent of the total permitted quota to Japan, 32 per cent to Norway, 9 per cent to the United Kingdom and 6 per cent to the Netherlands, with 20 per cent being allocated to the U.S.S.R. In addition to these basic percentages, under a special arrangement, the Netherlands would also benefit by a bonus system depending on the catch of her expedition by a certain date during the Antarctic whaling season.

In her consideration of the proposals developed during these meetings held outside the Convention and in order to assist in reaching a final decision, the Netherlands Government had asked for the views of the Commission on the following points:

(i)
the principle of carrying over from one season to the next the balance of any unused quota allocation;
(ii)
the lengthening of the Antarctic whaling season;
(iii)
the introduction and implementation of an International Observer Scheme for Antarctic whaling.

The Commission noted all of these developments and its attitude to these last three matters is recorded in the succeeding paragraphs.

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