4. Statements by Commissioners and Observers

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


The Commission accepted the Chairman's suggestion that representatives of the press should be invited to remain for item 3 on the agenda - opening statements by Commissioners and observers from other countries and organisations. Statements outlining the position of their Governments on proposals before the Commission were made by the Commissioners for the United States, Australia, the USSR and Japan. The Commissioner for Brazil made a brief statement on the return of a delegation from his country to the Commission.

Statements were made by the observers from the international organisations.

Mr L.K. Boerema made a statement on behalf of the FAO Assistant Director General of Fisheries. In the course of his remarks Mr Boerema referred to the active part played by FAO staff in the investigation of the whale stocks carried out by the Commission's scientists in the 1960s and said that now the Commission was again facing difficult decisions his Director General had been instructed by member Governments acting through the FAO Committee on Fisheries to assist in any way possible. Dr K. Curry-Lindahl who attended as an observer for the United Nations Environment Programme said that UNEP was willing and anxious to co-operate in the work of the Commission as soon as opportunity arises and suggested that such an opportunity would be found particularly in the field of research. He outlined the activities UNEP was developing with FAO and the FAO Committee on Marine Resources Research aimed at the protection of living marine resources.

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