Section 2. The ICRW was Created to Coordinate and
Codify Existing Regulations
2 23 The ICRW adopted in 1946 codified a number of past agreements
and protocols on the regulation of whaling, and provided a permanent
framework for the rational regulation of whaling, so as to conserve whale
stocks in a timely manner and enable the sustainable development of the
whaling industry The earlier agreements and protocols on whaling had been
concluded on a temporary basis, specifying the whaling seasons to which
they applied; and hence ad hoc conferences had to be held in order to extend
or modify their provisions They all took the form of treaties, and thus
requiredthe holding of diplomatic conferences for their adoption, and
ratification or accession by the signatories Finally, each of the agreements
and protocols had different parties, and there was therefore confusion as to
which States were bound by which agreements The establishment of the
ICRW overcame these major difficulties
2 24 The United States had announced at the International Whaling
Conference held in London on 2 February 1944165 that immediately after the
war it would convene a comprehensive international conference on whaling
in Washington D C 166 That Conference was held from 20 November to 2
December 1946, and was attended by delegates of fourteen States and
observers from five167 Speaking about the task for the Conference, Dean
Acheson, Acting Secretary of State of the United States, said at the Opening
Session:
“The work of this Conference is (1) to provide for the coordination
and the codification of existing regulations and (2) the
establishment of an effective administrative machinery for the
modification of these regulations from time to time as conditions
may in the future require.”168
2 25 The Conference was tasked with these two missions in order to
ensure the sustainability of the whaling industry This is also clear in the
instruction issued by Acheson to the United States delegation:
“The primary objective of the Conference is to provide for the
conservation and development of the whale stocks, with a view to
the ultimate achievement of a level of stocks which will permit a
sustained capture of the maximum number of whales Declines in
any stocks through overfishing should be arrested at the earliest
practicable moment and provision for rebuilding all depleted stocks
should be made promptly ”169
2 26 A T A Dobson, a British representative, also declared that the
task for the Conference was “one of consolidation and codification” and that
the British Delegation would “do [its] utmost to assist in the achievement of
that end so that the world resource may be maintained and an immensely
important source of food supply conserved for all time for the benefit of both
the producer and the consumer in all parts of the world