13. INTERNATIONAL DECADE OF CETACEAN RESEARCH

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


The Chairman of the Scientific Committee reported last year that sub-committees had been set up to prepare research proposals. The Scientific Committee considered these at its meeting at La Jolla in December 1974 and they were set out in the annexes of the report of that meeting which had been circulated to Commissioners. The Chairman of the Commission said that he had sent copies of the report to FAO and the United Nations Environment Programme with invitations to attend a meeting to discuss the proposals. UNEP had been unable to send a representative and the observer from UNEP (Dr Curry-Lindahl) said that there had been delay in receiving the report. He did not think that UNEP would wish to say what support it could give to the research programme until it had received the proposals that were to be put forward by the FAO/ACMRR Working Party. The Commission adopted the following resolution proposed by the United States Commissioner:

Remembering that the UN Conference on the Human Environment, Stockholm, 1972, pointed out the necessity of increased whale research;

Considering the recommendation of the 24th Meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) in 1972 established the International Decade of Cetacean Research (IDCR);

Recognising the decision of the Governing Council of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) in May 1975 requesting the Executive Director to support research on whales and small cetaceans; and

After examining the report of the Scientific Committee meeting in La Jolla in December 1974 which sets out priority areas of research for the IDCR;

THE INTERNATIONAL WHALING COMMISSION
Recommends that member nations give assistance through vessels, personnel or additional funds as contributions to any part of the IDCR proposals but particularly, in the areas of stock monitoring and stock identification in the Southern Hemisphere; and

Decides to indicate to UNEP that its assistance would be most useful in aiding IWC member nations in stock monitoring and stock identification cruises in the Southern Hemisphere.

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