As part of their explanation of the ICRW, Nelissen and van der Velde mistakenly refer to “an orderly development of the whaling industry is described as ‘desired’ by the Convention.” In fact, the final paragraph of the preamble to the Convention says, “Having decided to conclude a convention to provide for the proper conservation of whale stocks and thus make possible the orderly development of the whaling industry.” The ‘desired by the Convention’ refers to the penultimate paragraph of the preamble which says, “Desiring to establish a system of international regulation....” Error or bias? In either case it is a misrepresentation of an important part of the Convention – the statement of its purpose.