Further support for the position that the purpose is for research is reflected in the conclusions of the IWC Scientific Committee’s 2006 review of the JARPA results.12 The Scientific Committee made a number of recommendations for additional data analysis and concluded that: “...the dataset provides a valuable resource to allow investigation of some aspects of the role of whales within the marine ecosystem and that this has the potential to make an important contribution to the Scientific Committee’s work in this regard as well as the work of other relevant bodies such as the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources. The Scientific Committee also agreed with its earlier (1997)13 conclusion that the results from the research program “have the potential to improve management of minke whales in the Southern Hemisphere.”14 In this regard it should also be recalled that paragraph 4 of Article VIII of the Convention emphasizes the importance of the collection and analysis of biological data and obliges Contracting Governments to “...take all practicable measures to obtain such data.”15 The above noted conclusions of the Scientific Committee clearly support a positive response to what Nelissen and van der Velde view as “One of the most important questions in casu” that is, “...whether Japan is acting in good faith in its adherence to the ICRW by executing JARPA II and by continuing the application of lethal research methods for scientific purposes.”