FISHERY BULLETIN: VOL, 70, NO. 2 



I50«E 



h«ir ci*b 

 luo«i*ki cub 



Figure 10. — Crab fishing regulated under the Japan- 

 USSR crab agreement, 1969 (from Suisan-sha, 1970). 



still called an interim convention, it is almost a 

 permanent arrangement. Pelagic sealing is pro- 

 hibited ; a system of product distribution more 

 or less similar to that under the 1911 convention 

 is in effect. While the previous convention car- 

 ried out its tasks without forming an interna- 

 tional body, the nevi^ one established an inter- 

 national commission. Much emphasis has been 

 placed on a research program to arrive at an 

 optimum level of harvesting and examine the 

 effects of seal predation on other fishery re- 

 sources. 



greatly in the following few years. On Janu- 

 ary 18, 1952, President Syngman Rhee issued 

 a declaration claiming sovereign rights to all 

 natural resources over a vast area delimited by 

 the so-called Rhee Line (Figure 11)." On Sep- 

 tember 8, 1953, the Korean government further 

 issued a statement ordering all Japanese fishing 

 vessels to stay outside the line, and enforced the 

 order strictly at the height of the Japanese mack- 



124''E 



126°E 



128°E 



130"E 



132''E 



38°N 



36°N 



34° N 



32°N 



-I 1 1 I I I I '  I ' I 



Figure 11. — Korean exclusive fishery zone and the joint 

 regulatory area under the Japan-Korea fishery agree- 

 ment (from Fishery Agency, 1965). Large portions of 

 the joint regulatory area are closed to trawl fishing. 



Rhee Line 



Perhaps the most difficult fishery controversy 

 Japan has ever faced is the Rhee Line issue 

 arising from a declaration by President Syng- 

 man Rhee of the Republic of Korea concerning 

 marine sovereignty. Korea had ceased to be a 

 Japanese colony at the end of the war, and ne- 

 gotiations for normalizing relations between the 

 Republic of Korea (South Korea) and Japan be- 

 gan in February 1952 and continued until June 

 1965, for a period of 13 years. The most difficult 

 of all the problems was the fishery dispute. The 

 seizure of Japanese fishing vessels by Korean 

 authorities for alleged violation of waters under 

 Korean jurisdiction started as early as 1947, im- 

 mediately after the postwar expansion of Japa- 

 nese fisheries began, and incidents increased 



erel fishing season. Four major Japanese fish- 

 eries were affected: the pole-and-line mackerel 

 fishery (with lights), the purse-seine fishery for 

 jack mackerel, the trawl fishery west of long 

 130°E, and, least important, the trawl fishery 

 east of long 130°E. Between 1947 and 1959, 

 326 Japanese fishing vessels were seized and the 

 bulk of the 3,900 fishermen involved were jailed 

 (of these, 141 vessels and practically all fisher- 

 men were returned later). The Japanese gov- 

 ernment did not contest the Korean claim by 

 force but merely tried to minimize the number 

 of incidents by running her patrol boats along 

 the Rhee Line. 



" The preamble of the declaration referred to estab- 

 lished international precedents, and the Truman proc- 

 lamations of 1945 were mentioned in this connection. 



254 



