LETTER FROM SAN DIEGO

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Japanese scientists have already admitted that more than one-third of the area's population of Dall's porpoises—nearly 40,000 animals—was killed last year, and hint that the blame belongs to the IWC for imposing the moratorium. People mutter about blackmail.

"Scientific," or "research," whaling is expected to generate some angry words as well. Since the moratorium became effective, Japan, Norway, and Iceland have issued per mits to themselves to kill whales for research (all perfectly legal under the IWC's most accommodating rules). Roger Payne, who gave the whale conservationists an immeasurable boost fifteen years ago when he released the record "Songs of the Humpback Whale," is utterly scornful of this practice.

"The boats are the same, the whalers are the same. They work for the same companies; they sell the meat to the same people. This isn't science; it's commercial whaling by another name. There's nothing important you can learn from a dead whale that you can't learn from a live one," Payne tells several hundred people gathered on the lawn outside the meeting. Country Joe McDonald, natty in red shirt and white Panama hat, listens attentively, awaiting his turn to sing.

At the back of room 624 in the Dana Inn, nearly hidden behind a bank of pale gray boxes that issue faintly purring noises, sits a man with lemon-custard-colored hair with jet black roots. He is David Rinehart, production expert and computer nerd. The first issue of the newsletter, ECO, is getting its pajamas on. Soon, two people speed into the night to deliver artwork to the printer.

A head appears around the door jamb, offering to read proof. "Now is not the time to proofread," says Rinehart solemnly. "Now is the time to drink beer."

The commission's meeting proceeds deliberately. There are subtle shifts of power evident, as when St. Lucia sides with Japan on a procedural vote and France abstains. The conservationists won the moratorium in 1982 by recruiting new members for the commission in the early '80s-membership rose from 15 to 40 in that period, with most of the newcomers joining to crusade against whaling. Now, many of the late joiners are interested in other matters and have stopped paying their dues. Only 27 nations sent delegations to this year's meeting, and several of them said they would not return next year, partly because dues are going up 45%. The attrition is entirely from the antiwhaling bloc, which has conserv ationists worried.

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