The International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW)

 

The International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW) was signed in 1946. The objective of the Convention, as stated in its preamble, is to provide "for the proper conservation of whale stocks and thus make possible the orderly development of the whaling industry."

 

The International Whaling Commission (IWC) is the body appointed by the ICRW to carry out the management of whaling pursuant to the Convention. Management. Decisions require a three-quarters majority and form part of the Schedule, which is an Appendix to the Convention.

 

In order to furnish the IWC with recommendations, a Scientific Committee was appointed. Pursuant to the Convention, decisions of the IWC "shall be based on scientific findings", shall "provide for the conservation, development and optimum utilisation of the whale resources", and shall "take into consideration the interests of the consumers of whale products and the whaling industry".

 

The agreement includes only 12 species: the baleen whales (e.g. blue, fin, humpback and minke), the sperm whale and Arctic and Antarctic bottlenose whales, the so called "IWC-whales". Other whales, such as pilot, beluga and narwhal are not managed by the IWC.

 

The History of the IWC

 

In the 1940s, 1950s and well into the 1960s, whaling was still an important industry for a number of countries. The whaling nations in the IWC blocked proposals for reductions in catch quotas. They were aware that it was necessary to reduce catches, but were unable to agree among themselves on how to share the reductions. Over-exploitation of whale stocks continued.

 

In many ways, the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW) was ahead of its time. It was one of the first international agreements for the management of renewable resources that was based on the principle of sustainable use.

 

However, it took several decades before the convention came close to fulfilling its purpose. The decisions were driven by short-term economic considerations. Despite warnings from scientists in the early 1950s that catch quotas were excessive, the decimation of several great whale stocks by pelagic fleets continued in the Antarctic.

 

In the late 1960s the IWC belatedly started to pay respect to its own Scientific Committee, and in about 1970 actually started to set quotas in accordance with their advice.

 

A former IWC Commissioner for the USA wrote: "The turning point came in 1965, when for the first time in its history the Commission agreed to establish a catch limit in the Antarctic lower than the best scientific estimate of sustainable yield" (McHugh, 1974).

In 1974, the IWC introduced its New Management Procedure to ensure that any whaling operations that continued were sustainable. Even though this model was a major step forward, it had several weak points. Nevertheless, it can be said that after the introduction of the New Management Procedure, whaling carried out in accordance with the IWC management regime was generally sustainable.

 

The whaling moratorium of 1982

 

Despite this progress, the Commission nevertheless decided in 1982 to implement a moratorium on commercial whaling, which has been in effect since 1986.

 

While the Scientific Committee before 1982 had advised against a blanket moratorium, opinion in 1982 was divided as to the need for this measure.

 

The Schedule amendment implementing the moratorium was only meant to be a temporary measure, the decision says that “based upon the best scientific advice” it would be reviewed “by 1990 at the latest”.

 

In the period 1979-1982, IWC’s membership doubled with 19 new states joining, most of them completely unconnected with whaling. This made it possible to achieve the necessary three-quarter majority needed for a moratorium.

 

Several of the new members were recruited by people in the anti-whaling lobby, such as David McTaggart, Director of Greenpeace. Greenpeace compared this process with “a coup d’état”.

 

Changing the rules

 

During the 1990s the Scientific Committee has assessed several whale stocks and presented abundance estimates for them. On this basis, the IWC should have lifted the moratorium and set catch quotas. However, it has so far refused to do so.

 

The anti-whaling faction said that it was not enough to do the science, the IWC also had to work out a Revised Management Procedure (RMP). The core of the RMP is a quota calculation model, which takes uncertainty fully into account.

 

When the RMP was finally completed, the IWC refused to adopt it, causing the chairman of the Scientific Committee to resign in protest in 1993.

 

Then in 1994, the IWC also decided to work out what became known as the Revised Management Scheme (RMS) before the moratorium could be lifted.

 

The RMP will be at the heart of the RMS, and in addition the RMS will include an observer and control scheme. This requirement was not introduced until 10 years after the temporary moratorium was decided. Furthermore, the IWC had already established an international observer scheme in 1972.

 

During the years, the IWC has discussed the RMS at length, but made no progress. Some governments are making unrealistic demands concerning the scope of the RMS, calling for each whaling boat to carry an international observer, one national inspector, one interpreter if necessary, satellite monitoring, real time reporting, etc.

 

In addition, they ask the whaling countries to cover all the costs. It is our opinion, that these demands are made to sabotage the implementation of the RMS. The strategy seems to be to make whaling legal but impossible, i.e. should the IWC support whaling, it would in practice be impossible because it would not be economically attractive because of all these requirements.

 

Membership

 

Membership to the IWC is open to any nations that wish to sign the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling. The number of members was for a long time about 14-16, but in the period 1979-1982, 19 new states joined.

 

Currently there are 41 members to the IWC: