The international whaling commission's revised management procedure as an example of a new approach to fishery management

Abstract The Revised Management Procedure (RMP) for the management of baleen whaling has been developed under the auspices of the International Whaling Commission with the aim of overcoming the deficiencies of previous approaches to the management of whale resources. The development of the Procedure involved an extensive set of simulation tests covering a wide range of possible scenarios, to ensure that the procedure is robust even in the face of considerable uncertainty about the dynamics of whale stocks. The procedure is precautionary in the sense that the allowed level of take is lower when data are sparse. The approach used to develop the RMP has potential wider applicability in fishery management.