I am an English marine biologist, born in 1926, educated at the University of Reading, England and now resident in Umbria, Italy. I was the co-author with R. J. H. Beverton of a book "On the Dynamics of Exploited Fish Populations" first published in 1957 and which has since gone to three more editions. This book was the genesis of the modern age-structured approach to the optimal management of fishery resources. I am, of course, proud of that contribution to the Theory of Fishing. But in some ways more satisfied with my subsequent 25 years employed in United Nations organizations, having been appointed at various times Director of the Fisheries Resources and Operations Division of the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN (FAO, in Rome), Secretary of the Intergovernmental Oceanographic Commission (IOC) and Director of UNESCO's Marine Sciences Division in Paris. I have held professorial chairs at the Universities of California Santa Cruz, of Rhode Island and of Malta, and a Senior Overseas Fellowship at St John's College, Cambridge. In Malta I served as UN Advisor on Mediterranean Marine Affairs and was one of the founders and the first Director of the International Ocean Institute (IOI) there. Since my retirement from the United Nations in 1979 I have devoted my energies mainly to the conservation and protection of the Great Whales, serving on the International Whaling Commission's (IWC) Committee of Three scientists 1960-1985, on the delegation of the Republic of Seychelles to the IWC 1979-1987, as adviser to the Government of France 1992-4 and to the Delegations of Italy and Chile to the IWC, and also as Science Adviser to the International Fund for Animal Welfare (IFAW) since 1980. I participated in various capacities for more than thirty years in the Scientific Committee of the IWC, as well as in the Commission itself, from 1959 to 2002. I have been honoured with the Gold Medal of the World Wildlife Fund (WWF), the Royal Netherlands Golden Ark, the Global 500 Award of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and The Blue Planet Award of IFAW, all for contributions to the protection of marine mammals, to animal welfare and to fisheries science.