3. Address of Welcome
(from "Chairman's Report of the Twenty-Second Meeting")
The opening session was addressed by Mr R.G.R. Wall, CB, Deputy Secretary of
the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.
In welcoming Commissioners, Delegates and Observers to London Mr Wall referred
to the fact that eighteen or twenty years ago the Antarctic catch limit was
standing at a figure of 15,000 or 16,000 blue whale units whereas the figure
for last season was 2,700 units.
He said that this would not perhaps itself indicate a record of successful
achievement.
But this was not the whole story.
Throughout the years the Commission had been tenaciously fighting the battles
for the conservation of the whale stocks.
It had increased scientific knowledge of the stocks, the essential base of
successful conservation, and by intensifying its regulations had established
the principle of the maximum sustainable yield on which depended the
maintenance of stocks at their reduced level and still more their recovery
towards higher levels.
He wished the Commission well in its continuing endeavours for the
conservation of the whale stocks.
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