IWMC World Conservation Trust wishes the participants to this 55^th Annual Meeting of the International Whaling Commission the goodwill and wisdom required to address the unfinished business of the IWC’s Revised Management Plan and Revised Management Scheme. We also take this opportunity of thanking the Government of Germany for hosting this important meeting for the future of IWC and its members.

IWMC World Conservation Trust would like to offer the following comments:

Since the establishment of the moratorium on whaling, the IWC has systematically undermined its own authority in new and novel ways. In Berlin, a majority of IWC member countries are apparently ready to take another step towards the oblivion that increasingly appears to be the Commission’s fate.

The list of black marks on the IWC’s record is already lengthy. The 1986 moratorium was introduced because of political pressure rather than scientific evidence and the vote itself was only secured when new member states were bankrolled by an outside body. The IWC then missed its 1990 deadline for reassessing whale stocks and setting new catch quotas, and continues to miss it to this day. Because a moratorium is, by definition, a temporary measure, it is incumbent on the IWC to establish a date when it will be lifted. So far the IWC has failed to do so while ignoring, side-stepping and obfuscating over any evidence that hunting whales could be managed in a sustainable manner.

Regional whale sanctuaries were established, again under political pressure and without any technical justification. The IWC has never properly evaluated their impact, but it is difficult to imagine what they have really achieved so far.

The Revised Management Procedure (RMP) was only agreed after lengthy delay and following the resignation of the chairman of the Scientific Committee. The Revised Management Scheme (RMS), the completion of which is the IWC’s core responsibility, is still under discussion after ten years of fruitless debate orchestrated by outside bodies.