HL Deb 19 April 1977 vol 382 cc117-8WA
Lord AVEBURY

asked Her Majesty's Government:

  1. (i) what items they have asked the secretariat of the International Whaling Commission to include on the agenda for the Plenary Session of the 29th meeting of the International Whaling Commission and what is the last date by which any such submissions have to be made;
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  2. (ii) what advice have they received regarding the upper and lower limits of maximum sustainable yield for each of the currently exploited whale species; and
  3. (iii) whether they consider that assumed numerical relationships between the population and yield of various whale species form a satisfactory guide to the determination of maximum sustainable yields.

Lord STRABOLGI

(i) The United Kingdom has asked the Secretariat of the International Whaling Commission to add one item, "the review of criteria for the management of whale stocks", to the agenda for the Plenary Session of the 29th meeting of the International Whaling Commission. Following discussion between the Secretariat and the United Kingdom, the Scientific Committee's Report on the International Union for the Conservation of Nature Resolution that msy methods are inadequate as a basis for managing wild living resources has also been added. The closing date for comments on the provisional agenda was 7th April.

  1. (ii) The International Whaling Commission receives advice from its Scientific Committee as to the best estimates of maximum sustainable yield for whale populations. These estimates are not cast in the form of upper and lower values.
  2. (iii) Maximum sustainable yields can only be derived from consideration of such numerical relationships. The IWC's Scientific Committee works on the basis of different models for different whale species. The states of each stock, and the population dynamics models which are used to describe them, are reviewed frequently.