The 55th Annual Meeting of the International Whaling Commission took place from 16-19 June 2003, in Berlin, Germany.

Among the meeting’s accomplishments was the formalization of the Commission’s role as a conservation body through Resolution 2003-1, the Berlin Initiative on Strengthening the Conservation Agenda of the IWC. With votes 25 in favor, 20 against and 1 abstention, it established a Conservation Committee to prepare and make recommendations on the IWC’s conservation agenda.
The Commission also established an intersessional group to explore ways to move the Revised Management Scheme forward. Two proposals for sanctuaries in the South Pacific and South Atlantic failed to gain the necessary majorities and were rejected. The Commission rejected a proposal by Japan for catch limits of 150 minke whales and 150 Bryde’s whales to be taken by coastal community-based whaling. On scientific permits, it passed a resolution urging countries to terminate or not to commence special permit catches, and another one asking Japan not to continue its special permit catches of Antarctic minke whales. For more information, visit: http://www.iwcoffice.org/2003_meeting.htm and the meeting’s final press release: http://www.iwcoffice.org/FinalPressRelease2003.htm