The U.S. pamphlet says "As a whole, whales do not eat large quantities of fish as food" however, a recent study presented to the International Whaling Commission’s Scientific Committee (Tamura and Ohsumi, 2000) conservatively estimates that annual fish consumption by cetaceans in the Southern Hemisphere is 18 to 32 million tons. In the case of the North Pacific, fish consumption was estimated to be 21-30 million tons and in the North Atlantic, 15-25 million tons. Much of this fish is comprised of species subject to commercial fishing. Clearly, scientific facts contradict the statements of the U.S. Department of Commerce.

The U.S. pamphlet uses simple "facts" such as "humans are primarily responsible for fisheries declines", "predatory and cannibalistic fishes consume vastly greater amounts of commercially valuable fish than do marine mammals", and "many whales feed on krill and fish species not used by humans" to dismiss the significance of fish consumption by whales. Presentation of these simple "facts" ignores scientific findings that clearly show fish consumption is important and often in direct competition with fisheries for human food.

Clearly, fisheries management organizations must address issues such as excess fishing capacity, illegal and unregulated fishing and other problems (indeed Japan has responded to the FAO by significantly reducing its tuna longline fleet) but at the same time, more effective management of marine resources means that we cannot ignore the issue of fish consumption by marine mammals when there is a growing demand by humans for fish and when whale populations are increasing.