The Committee of Three was a panel of three scientists (

Kenneth Radway Allen Kenneth Radway Allen (12 February 1911 – 16 February 2008) was a New Zealand fisheries biologist. Academic career After a MSc from Cambridge University Allen arrived in New Zealand and worked for what was to become the Department of Scientif ...

, Douglas G. Chapman and

Sidney Holt Sidney J. Holt (28 February 1926 – 22 December 2019) was a British biologist who was a founder of fisheries science. He was best known for the book ''On the Dynamics of Exploited Fish Populations'' which he published with Ray Beverton in 1957.Be ...

) who were selected in 1960 to advise the

International Whaling Commission The International Whaling Commission (IWC) is a specialised regional fishery management organisation, established under the terms of the 1946 International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling (ICRW) to "provide for the proper conservation of ...

on whaling quotas. They found new methods to calculate whaling quotas and by analyzing whaling data (catches, the number of whaling boats etc.) they came up with proposals for annual quotas for whales. The panel's report, in 1961, was the international whaling commission's first attempt to come up with quotas that would permit whaling while allowing the whale population to increase. The three scientists on the panel were selected because they specialized in fisheries research but were not officially connected with

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic country in Northern Europe, the mainland territory of which comprises the western and northernmost portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and t ...

the Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

, the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

Britain Britain most often refers to: * The United Kingdom, a sovereign state in Europe comprising the island of Great Britain, the north-eastern part of the island of Ireland and many smaller islands * Great Britain, the largest island in the United King ...

, the countries conducting the whaling they were to study. The quotas recommended were so much lower than usual that the whaling countries argued over them for many years but eventually they had to lower the quotas. However the whaling countries first adopted interim, compromise quotas which were higher than recommended. A fourth member, John Gulland, was added to the committee in 1961, but the committee continued to be referred to by its original name.

Notes

{{DEFAULTSORT:Committee of Three, The Committees International Whaling Commission