The Comprehensive Assessment of Whale Stocks The early years

About this book

As a result of the decision to institute a 'pause' in commercial whaling (also known as 'the moratorium'), the IWC Scientific Committee has embarked on a 'Comprehensive Assessment' of the world's whale stocks. This is intended to be an in-depth evaluation of the status of all whale stocks in the light of management objectives and procedures. It will include an examination of current stock size, population trends, carrying capacity and productivity. This volume documents the progress made in this task up to mid-1989.

It includes the reports of the original meeting held to plan the work and subsequent Workshops dealing with the development of management procedures and with the use of catch-per-unit-effort data. Following these reports, the volume is divided into two sections. The first includes three contract reviews carried out for the International Whaling Commission by experts in those fields of study. These thorough and well written reviews are invaluable to all cetologists wishing to keep abreast of recent advances in these fields. The final section details the progress made by five groups of research workers from different countries in the search for a management procedure which does not require more detailed information about stocks than we are likely to be able to discover. This represents some of the most interesting recent work in the area of wildlife management.

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