A Retrospective (1979-1996) Multispecies Assessment of Coral Reef Fish Stocks in the Florida Keys

Abstract

"By the end of World War II, it had become clear to even the most reluctant whalers that some sort of quota system was needed to prevent the commercial extinction of the world’s whale stocks. In 1946, the whaling nations—including the Soviet Union—signed the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling. The Convention created the International Whaling Commission, a body which met annually to oversee research on whale populations and to set scientifically based quotas that would theoretically balance the industry’s revenues with the need for long-term conservation of populations. Not unpredictably, a process that was conceived as a necessarily good idea quickly fell victim to the desire for profit. Since whales are difficult to study, it was virtually impossible to obtain indisputable proof to support predictions of population crashes."