Antarctie Conservation

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32354, 21 July 1970, Page 14

Antarctie Conservation

Sir,—The editortai makes the Antarctica Amendment Bill look an attractive piece of legislation, but, if recommendations made by the international nongovernmental scientific organisation, the Biology Working Group of the Scientific Committee for Antarctic Research, are adopted in their present form the legislation may prove to be unpalatable and we can say good-bye to our mammal population. The Antarctic Treaty Conference will meet in Tokyo in October to coh-

sider recommendations made by the Committee for Antarctic Conservation. The proposed sealing regulations provide for the restricted killing of breeding seals of specified species but do not make provision for the protection of baby seals, a consequent reduction in the breeding population. Neither, is the method of killing specified and will mean the use of clubs, the most cheap, bloody and brutal of all weapons The policing of boats in all parts of the continent is impossible and not likely to be imposed by treaty nations, and the after-catch dockside check is unreliable.—Yours, R. J. GLEN. July 20, 1970.