The 1984 International Whaling Commission meeting approaches and, as has often been the case in the past, there may be some surprises in store. Conservationists await with particular concern the stand that the Member nations take as the moratorium on commercial whaling draws nearer. The author has been a consultant on whales and whaling to many international organisations, including the UN Environment Programme, WWF, Greenpeace, IUCN, International Fund for Animal Welfare, as well as to ffPS. He has been since 1979 Scientific Adviser, and since 1983 Alternate Commissioner, to the delegation of the Republic of Seychelles to the IWC. He has followed the proceedings of the IWC since 1958, mainly as Representative of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN. Here he is writing in his personal capacity, and what he has written should not be taken as representing the position of the Seychelles Government or of any organisation with which he has been associated.