An alternative to the above is an aggressive strategy involving IWC and the general public. Japan should continue their pressure for implementing the Revised Management Scheme, committing in advance to an observer program patterned after the domestic observer program used by the United States in the north Pacific or the one used by the Inter American Tropical Tuna Commission. The costs are relatively modest. Both carry a commitment involving the fishermen and the government or the Commission. This also means accepting the quotas established by the RMP. The combination of conservative quotas and a professional observer program provides certainty that whaling efforts will be sustainable.

Let me immediately add, however, that I am not optimistic that this approach will win the necessary majority within IWC to assure implementation.

Parallel to the above I think it might be worthwhile to take a page from the protection community's action plan. I wonder if it is possible for Japan, or the whaling associations, to develop full page newspaper ads that carefully spell out a number of key points about proposed whaling operations: The harvest will be on a sustained basis and will not involve any species having low population levels- the take will be used for food- the take will be under the aegis of an international observer program; the take would be by professionals and be no more inhumane than the killing of farm animals. Information should also be provided about who the Japanese whalers are and about the cultural as well as the economic importance of the hunt to relatively small communities.

While I know that this kind of information has been provided in numerous booklets made available to the immediate IWC community as well as other interested parties, this distribution is more limited than a media approach that gets to a larger portion of the U.S. population.

I would also suggest that the campaign use a before and after approach. About a month before IWC, Japan’s proposals should be described, with the wish that they be accepted and that the cultural abhorrence shown by the anti-whaling nations be modified in the recognition that the issue is not a conservation problem. Implementation assures both the long term survival of all whale species and the survival of the cultural diversity that is essential for human survival.

The after meeting approach would explain what happened- and why- and explain the need to move ahead, along with a request for understanding. While this may not be fully successful, I remain optimistic about the general fairness of my fellow citizens. This will, I hope, mitigate the harshness of official responses and force some people to question more carefully the claims of the anti-whaling community.

Even with the less conservative New Management Procedure, not a single whale species was jeopardized. Application of the RMP, provides certainties of safety at a level not found in any other natural resource management plan that I know.

Somehow we must solve the IWC problem- our world is too small for unnecessary confrontations- especially between friends.