This was published online today - it's Open Access so a pdf reprint can be downloaded for free directly from the website: http://rsos.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/2/7/150177 Ivashchenko, Y.V. and Clapham, P.J. 2015. What’s the catch? Validity of whaling data for Japanese catches of sperm whales in the North Pacific. *Royal Society Open Science* DOI: 10.1098/rsos.150177. ABSTRACT The failure of international efforts to manage commercial whaling was exemplified by revelations of large-scale illegal whale catches by the USSR over a 30-year period following World War 2. Falsifications of catch data have also been reported for Japanese coastal whaling, but to date there has been no investigation of the reliability of catch statistics for Japanese pelagic (factory fleet) whaling operations. Here, we use data of known reliability from Soviet whaling industry reports to show that body lengths reported to the International Whaling Commission (IWC) by Japanese factory fleets for female sperm whales caught in the North Pacific are not credible. In 1968/69, Japanese whaling fleets in the North Pacific killed 1,568 females, of which 1,525 (97.3%) were reported as being at or above the IWC’s minimum length of 11.6 m (legal-sized females, LSFs). In contrast, Soviet fleets operating during this period killed 12,578 females; only 824 (6.6%) were LSFs. Adjusting for effort, catches of LSFs were up to 9.1 times higher for Japan compared to the USSR, and even higher for very large females. Dramatic differences in body length statistics were evident when both nations operated in the same area. Significantly, the frequency of LSFs and very large females in the Japanese catch markedly declined after the IWC’s International Observer Scheme in 1972 made illegal whaling more difficult. We conclude that the Japanese length data reflect systematic falsification of catch statistics submitted to the IWC, with serious implications for the reliability of data used in current population assessments. The apparent ease with which catch data were falsified in the past underscores the necessity of transparent and independent inspection procedures in any future commercial whaling. -- Phillip J. Clapham, Ph.D. Leader, Cetacean Assessment and Ecology Program National Marine Mammal Laboratory Alaska Fisheries Science Center 7600 Sand Point Way NE Seattle, WA 98115, USA tel 206 526 4037 fax 206 526 6615 email phillip.clapham@noaa.gov