3. Address of Welcome

(from "Chairman's Report of the Twenty-Third Meeting")


The opening session was addressed by the Honorable U. Alexis Johnson, Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, who in extending a hearty welcome to the Commission on behalf of the United States Government remarked that the Commission had its birth in Washington in 1946 but had not met in the United States until this meeting. He said that in many respects this was the most critical meeting ever held by the Commission, the whole concept of the multilateral international commission as an effective means of dealing with the conservation of major living marine resources was on trial. The placing of eight species of whales on the Endangered Species List by the United States Government and the announcement that after December 31, 1971 it would issue no more licences to kill whales expressed the view of the people of the United States that the Commission had acted neither soon enough nor forcefully enough to prevent destruction of a valuable international resource. Through the efforts of the Commission there was a code of regulation incorporating minimum size limits, catch quotas, closed areas and closed seasons, prohibitions on killing certain species and other beneficial measures. Many important problems remained unsolved, the major ones were:

(1)
the International Observer Scheme;
(2)
the blue-whale-unit catch limit in the Antarctic;
(3)
the levels of catch quotas as now established.

The need for adequate surveillance of the enforcement of regulations was recognised and he hoped the Commission would take forthright action following the special meeting held on the subject. The blue-whale-unit must be abolished as a regulatory device and quotas must be established by species and by stock; and more stringent criteria should be used in setting quotas. Mr Johnson said they had faith in the ability of the representatives of the member nations of the Commission in acting for the common good in the cause of restoring world whale resources to their maximum level of productivity. He wished success to the Commission's work.

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