(from "Chairman's Report of the Thirty-Fifth Annual Meeting")

Because of the Commission's financial constraints, only one item was being put forward for 1983 - 1984, the sixth Southern Hemisphere Minke Whale Assessment Cruise in Area VI and the related data analysis.

The Commission noted the question raised in Technical Committee by the Seychelles over the priority given to this programme by the Scientific Committee.

17.2 Whale habitats
The Scientific Committee had asked that relevant information on changes in fish stocks which are the food of whales should be submitted by member nations, but none had been received. It was noted that the work involved in responding to this request was too wide in scope to be included in Progress Reports.

A review of the state of world fishery resources submitted by FAO indicated that fisheries had adversely affected the stocks of three important food species for cetaceans - capelin in the northwest Atlantic, pilchards in the southeast Atlantic, anchoveta and other pelagic species in the southeast Pacific. The potential large scale harvesting of krill in the Antarctic has also attracted considerable public interest as a possible threat to the recovery of the great whales. It was suggested that the feeding strategies of cetaceans and the effect of prey reduction might form part of a scientific workshop on whales and their ecosystems.

In consideration of the effect of pollution on whale populations several countries had indicated in their Progress Reports that collections of materials were being made from cetaceans to study the levels of pollutants including potential prey species of cetaceans, but no information was presented on possible effects of high pollutant levels on cetaceans.

Denmark spoke of its serious concern over plans for transporting oil and liquified natural gas from Arctic sites in ice-breaking super-tankers because of the risk of devastating oil pollution of the waters en route, the effect on marine life and thus the livelihood of the people of Greenland. It urged that plans for year round shipping in the Arctic should not be implemented before solutions have been found that take account of the special environmental, social and economic interests of the populations of the areas concerned.

The Netherlands and Sweden shared this concern and Norway expressed its sympathy but noted the limit of responsibilities of this Commission.

There was extended discussion over a proposal by Mexico dealing with compilation of sources of data, provision of data by member governments, and the encouragement of an ecosystem approach to management. Norway noted the connection with revision of the present management procedures, and Seychelles the need for the Scientific Committee to start to ask what data will be available to it in future. The UK and Sweden also expressed general support while the Federal Republic of Germany drew attention to the transfer of competence for fisheries management to the EEC by its members. The Commission finally decided that it could not develop a satisfactory form of wording to encompass all these considerations and Mexico withdrew its proposal.

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