9. Pelagic Catch Limit in the Antarctic
(from "Chairman's Report of the Twenty-Second Meeting")
The Scientific Committee reported that it had considered three papers
estimating the size of the fin whale stock in the Antarctic but, despite the
progress made at a special meeting on fin whale assessment held during the
year in Honolulu, the Committee was unable to reach agreement on an estimate
of the sustainable yield of fin whales in 1970/71.
All members except Japan agreed that the recent level of fin whale catch
(2,700 average over the last five seasons) appeared fairly close to the
present sustainable yields.
Japanese scientists believed the best estimate was 3,520 to 4,350.
Two estimates of the present sustainable yield of sei whales studied by the
Committee indicated it to be about 5,000 whales.
The Commission accepted the Technical Committee's recommendation that the
catch limit in the Antarctic should be 2,700 blue whale units on the
understanding that the actual catches would not be substantially increased
above recent levels.
It decided to amend the Schedule to the Convention by deleting "1969/70" from
paragraph 8(a) and substituting "1970/71".
Three delegations while agreeing with the decision expressed misgivings
whether the limit would hold the present stock level.
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