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

18.2 Access to IWC data
The Secretary had prepared a working paper on the present policy of access to IWC data holdings and possible alternative guidelines. This was reviewed by the Scientific Committee which agreed to the following suggestions:

(1)

It is suggested that the information required to be submitted under the terms of the Convention and Schedule should be regarded as freely available to any interested persons with a legitimate claim relative to the aims and purposes of the Convention.

(2)

Information collected as the result of IWC sponsored activities and/or on a collaborative basis with other organisations, governments, institutions or individuals, should be freely available within those contributing bodies, and preferably more widely either immediately, or, after mutual agreement between the IWC and the relevant body/person, perhaps after a suitable time interval to allow 'first use' rights to the primary contributors.

(3)

The information provided on a voluntary basis can have limitations on its availability determined by the donor Government. As a minimum this should be to the presently defined accredited persons, but Governments might be asked to consider making such records more widely available or accessible.

The Scientific Committee also agreed that for the purposes of the present guidelines in its Rules of Procedure, invited participants can also be considered as 'accredited' during the intersessional period following the meeting at which they attend.

The Scientific Committee noted that some data (e.g. stomach content information) have for a long time been submitted by whaling operations to BIWS on a voluntary basis. It would seem reasonable for these to be freely available (as in paragraph 1 above). However, comparable data submitted from now on may fall into the paragraph 3 category. It will be necessary for the Secretariat to seek clarification on such data and similar cases, especially from Japan and the USSR.

There was some discussion of data collected in connection with the Comprehensive Assessment. Current guideline 3(a) refers to 'information collected under International Schemes' but limits this to 'data from IWC/IDCR cruises and from the International Marking Scheme', while guideline 3(b) refers to 'information collected under national programmes, or other than in (a)'. There is some ambiguity as to which guidelines would apply to programmes carried out as Committee-endorsed projects under the Comprehensive Assessment and IDCR.

It agreed that the Secretariat should develop a discussion paper concerning the general question of data availability and research carried out under the Comprehensive Assessment to be circulated in advance of the next Annual Meeting. The Scientific Committee drew the Commission's attention to this question and the intention that suggested revised guidelines will be examined at its next Annual Meeting.

18.3 Format for statistics
Mr P. Tresselt (Norway) presented the report of a Working Group made up of representatives from Australia, Brazil, Japan, Norway and the USA. This reviewed the style and format of the volume of International Whaling Statistics, and presented a proposal (shown in Appendix 5). This retained the old title for continuity of reference and divided the contents into those required by the Schedule, information on large whales from non-members of the IWC, and information supplied on a voluntary basis.

After clarification that the publication of the voluntarily supplied information would be subject to the agreed safeguards concerning access, the Technical Committee agreed to this format.

18.4 Action arising
The Technical Committee agreed to recommend all the actions given above, and particularly endorsed the recommended guidelines and took note of the further work proposed. The Commission also endorsed all these items.

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