14. Minimum Length for Sperm Whales

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


The Commission paid considerable attention to the views expressed by Japan at the Thirteenth Meeting that the present size-limit for sperm whales might be higher than necessary. They concluded that the evidence was not yet sufficient to justify a specific change being made at this meeting.

In the meantime it was agreed that the Scientific Committee should be asked to make a further study before the next meeting of the Commission of the scientific evidence of the effects of reducing the minimum size of sperm whales. This should be done in relation to both land stations and factory ships in the North Pacific and elsewhere. As far as the North Pacific is concerned it was thought that this work might perhaps be undertaken by the Working Group from Canada, Japan, the United States of America and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics set up by the Scientific Committee.

The Commission also requested that Contracting Governments, if they so wished, should provide the Secretary before the next Commission Meeting with any economic reasons why a reduction in the minimum size of sperm whales was necessary either generally or in relation to specific areas or specific operations. In order to permit a decision to be made on this matter, both economic and scientific material should be made available in sufficient time before the 1963 Meeting.

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