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

(i)

Initial Management Stocks which may be reduced in a controlled manner to achieve MSY levels or optimum levels as these are determined.

(ii)

Sustained Management Stocks which should be maintained at or near MSY levels and then at optimum levels as these are determined.

(iii)

Protection Stocks which are below the level of Sustained Management Stocks and should be fully protected.

It wats agreed that:

(a)

Commercial whaling should be permitted on Initial Management Stocks subject to the advice of the Scientific Committee as to measures necessary to bring the stocks to the MSY level and then optimum level in an efficient manner and without risk of reducing them below this level.

(b)

Commercial whaling should be permitted on Sustained Management Stocks subject to the advice of the Scientific Committee.

(c)

There shall be no commercial whaling on species or stocks classified as Protection Stocks, including those species listed for full protection in the current Schedule.

It was decided that the proposal should be implemented by the Scientific Committee providing advice, to be up-dated annually, on the criteria to be used in defining the above categories of whale stocks to be incorporated in the Schedule as soon as possible, and by the Commission making the necessary amendments not later than its 27th Meeting.

The Scientific Committee at a meeting in La Jolla, California in December 1974 considered the criteria that should be adopted in defining the three categories of stocks and following its meeting in London prior to the meeting of the Commission finalised the following proposals which were considered by the Technical Committee:

A Sustained Management Stock shall be defined as a stock¹ which is not more than Z% of MSY stock level below MSY level, and not more than 20% above that level, MSY being determined on the basis of the number or whales; provided that for stocks between the MSY stock level and Z% below that level the permitted catch shall be not more than is indicated by a straight line from zero at the lower limit to 90% of MSY for stocks above MSY level and that it shall not be more than 90% of MSY for stocks above MSY level.

When a stock has remained at a stable level for a considerable period under a regime of approximately constant catches, it shall be classified as a Sustained Management Stock in the absence of any positive evidence that it should be otherwise classified under the preceding criteria.

An Initial Management Stock shall be defined as a stock more than 20% of MSY stock level above MSY level; it is further recommended that the permitted catch for such stocks shall be not more than 90% of MSY as far as this is known, or where it will be more appropriate, fishing effort shall be limited to that which will take 90% of MSY in a stock at MSY level. In the absence of any positive evidence that a continuing higher percentage would not reduce the stock below MSY level, no more than 5% of the estimated initial exploitable stock size should be taken in any one year.

Exploitation should not commence until an estimate of stock size has been obtained which is satisfactory in the view of the Scientific Committee.

A Protection Stock shall be defined as a stock which is below Z% of MSY stock level below MSY level.

¹ Stock for this purpose may be defined by the Scientific Committee as total, mature or exploitable as appropriate in each case.

The Technical Committee agreed with the majority view of the Scientific Committee that the limit below MSY level for Sustained Management Stock and Protection Stock should be 10%.

An alternative formula was proposed by the United Kingdom for determining the annual catch during the transitional period when a sustained management stock is returning to MSY level. The length of the transitional period or the total catch of whales during it would not be affected by the formula which was as follows:

The annual catch for a Sustained Management Stock for each year during which it remains below MSY level shall not exceed the number of whales obtained by taking 90% of the MSY and reducing that number by 5% for every one per cent by which the stock at the beginning of the sustained management period falls short of the MSY stock level.

The Technical Committee recommended the adoption of the Scientific Committee's proposals as the basis for the classification of the stocks except that for the 1975-76 Antarctic season and the 1976 season in all other areas in the Southern Hemisphere the permitted catch of sei whales should be determined in accordance with the alternative formula set out above.

The Scientific Committee was asked to examine the two formulae with the object of providing the Commission at its next meeting with advice on the advantages and disadvantages of each so that the Committee can decide on the application of one of them to all stocks.

For the purpose of classifying the individual stocks and determining the catch limits the Commission accepted the areas proposed by the Scientific Committee as follows:

Southern Hemisphere for waters between the ice edge and 40°S for fin whales, and the ice edge and the equator fur sei and minke whales.

Area I			120°W	-	60°W
Area II			60°W	-	0°
Area III			0°	-	70°E
Area IV			70°E	-	130°E
Area V			130°E	-	170°W
Area VI			170°W	-	120°W

Southern Hemisphere for sperm whales for waters between the ice edge and the equator.

Division 1			60°W	-	30°W
Division 2			30°W	-	20°E
Division 3			20°E	-	60°E
Division 4			60°E	-	90°E
Division 5			90°E	-	130°E
Division 6			130°E	-	160°E
Division 7			160°E	-	170°W
Division 8			170°W	-	100°W
Division 9			100°W	-	60°W

The Commission accepted the Technical Committee's recommendation that the following classification of the whale stocks preposed by the Scientific Committee should be adopted for the 1975-76 Antarctic season and the 1976 season elsewhere:

Sustained Management Stock

Fin whales		Southern Hemisphere
Fin whales		North Atlantic (Iceland Stock)
Fin whales		North Atlantic (Newfoundland Stock)
Sei and Bryde's whales		Southern Hemisphere Areas I, II, IV, V, VI
Minke whales		Southern Hemisphere Area IV, North Atlantic (Stock East of Cape Farewell, Greenland)
Sperm whales - males		Southern Hemisphere Divisions 1, 2, 3, 4, 7 and 9
Sperm whales - females		Southern Hemisphere Divisions 3, 4, 7 and 9

Initial Management Stock

Minke whales		Southern Hemisphere Areas I, II, III, V, VI
Minke whales		North Atlantic (Stock West of Cape Farewell, Greenland)
Bryde's whales		North Pacific
Sperm whales - males		Southern Hemisphere Divisions 5 and 8
Sperm whales - females		Southern Hemisphere Divisions 1, 2, 5, 6 and 8
Sperm whales - males		North Pacific
Sperm whales - females		North Pacific

Protection Stock

Blue whales		All Oceans
Humpback whales		All Oceans
Right whales		All Oceans
Gray whales		All Oceans
Fin whales		Southern Hemisphere Areas II, III, IV, V, VI
Fin whales		North Pacific
Fin whales		North Atlantic (Faroes and West Norway Stock)
Fin whales		North Atlantic (Nova Scotia Stock)
Sei whales		Southern Hemisphere Area III
Sei whales		North Pacific
Sperm whales - males		Southern Hemisphere Division 6

Amendments to the Schedule incorporating the classifications and the formulae on which they were determined were prepared by the Technical Committee and approved by the Commission.

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