12. Sperm Whale Stocks
(from "Chairman's Report of the Twenty-Third Meeting")
The Scientific Committee reported that further analysis and new population
models were needed for sperm whale stocks and recommended that a special stock
assessment meeting be held early in 1972.
An assessment was now available for the area between 20°E and
70°E in the southern hemisphere and the Committee considered that
it would be wise to prevent any increase in the male catch in that area.
It recognised the difficulty of establishing suitable regulations to provide
for this and urged that steps be taken as rapidly as possible to review all
the possibilities of achieving this objective.
The Commission endorsed the proposal to hold a special stock assessment
meeting early in 1972.
It was suggested that the Committee should give particular attention to the
problem of limiting the catch of males not only in the North Pacific where the
Commissioners for the countries in that area had agreed that consideration
should be given to determining methods of separating catches of males and
females, but also in the southern hemisphere.
The Commission accepted a proposal put forward by the delegation for South
Africa that catch limits should be imposed for the area between
20°E and 70°E in the southern hemisphere and added the
following sub-paragraph to Paragraph 8 of the Schedule:
- "(j)
- The number of sperm whales taken in the area south of the Equator between
20° East longitude and 70° East longitude in the 1971/72
pelagic season shall not exceed 923 whales and in the 1972 coastal season
shall not exceed 1,824 whales.
These figures in subsequent seasons to be further adjusted on the basis of the
latest scientific assessment."
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