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This is my report from the Scientific Committee meeting of the International Whaling Commission (IWC) held in Grenada from 3 May to 15 May 1999. An earlier draft was prepared for Jim McClay, NZ Commissioner to the IWC, for briefing on the issues discussed in the Scientific Committee. In this report I outline the important discussions that occurred in the Scientific Committee, particularly those issues that directly affect New Zealand. I attended three of the seven sessions, while Scott Baker, Steve Dawson and Mike Donoghue attended various parts of these three plus the other four sessions that I was unable to cover. New Zealand was very well represented at the meeting, which allowed coverage of all sessions even when three or four were running concurrently.

The number of humpback sightings and the number of whales recorded in this study suggest a slow increase over the last 10 years, particularly in the last 4 years. The results of this study may have been influenced by a variety of factors, the most important of which may be inconsistent effort. The results presented in this report are broadly consistent with that described by Dawbin (1956). As reported by Dawbin (1956), and found in this study, the northern migration occurs between May and August while the southern occurs from September to December. There is little evidence of a change in migration patterns past the New Zealand coast. The inability to quantify effort is a major limitation with the data and does not make it possible to draw clear conclusions on population size or trends in migration. However, the results are useful in determining the locality and seasonality of humpback whales as they migrate along New Zealand coasts.