18. The Observer Scheme

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


A special meeting of the Commissioners of the Antarctic pelagic whaling countries had been convened by the Secretary on the instructions of the Commission at its last meeting to work out the details of an observer scheme. It met in Moscow from 26th April - 4th May and completed its work during this meeting of the Commission. The agreement that resulted (see appendix) involves the nomination by the Governments of Japan, the Netherlands, Norway, the U.S.S.R. and the United Kingdom of observers in numbers equivalent to the number of expeditions each government operates. These observers are to be appointed to serve in the expeditions of the other four Governments. In addition each Government will have the right to put one observer of its own nationality on every foreign expedition which is engaged in Antarctic pelagic whaling. All the observers will be appointed by the Commission and are to be enabled to verify the observance by the expeditions of the provisions of the International Whaling Convention and the Schedule to the Convention in regard to the taking of whales and their utilization. They will make their reports to the Secretariat of the Commission.

Although the Agreement on the International Observer Scheme is outside the International Whaling Convention the scheme cannot operate unless the Commission appoints the observers and receives their reports. To do this the Schedule to the Convention also needed amendment. The Commissioner for New Zealand therefore proposed and the Commissioner for the U.S.A. seconded the following resolution designed by the Commissioners of the five Antarctic pelagic whaling countries to allow the Commission to play its part in implementing the agreement:

"The Commission note that 5 countries engaged in the Antarctic pelagic whaling: the U.S.S.R., United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Norway and Japan - parties to the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling, and to the arrangements for the Regulation of Antarctic Pelagic Whaling, signed in London on 6th June, 1962, have arranged to conclude an Agreement on the International Observer Scheme".

The Commission resolve that:

"The operation of the observer arrangements shall be the responsibility of a committee consisting of the Commissioners for the member countries engaged in the Antarctic pelagic whaling".

The Commission agree upon the insertion of the following words at the end of the first sentence of Paragraph 1(a) of the Schedule to the Convention:

"... and also such observers as the member countries engaged in the Antarctic pelagic whaling may arrange to place on each other's factory ships".

On being put to the meeting the resolution was carried, there being 11 votes in favour, none against and 2 abstentions.

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