MARINE MAMMAL COMMISSION — Annual Report for 1995 



On 1 November 1994 the Marine Mammal Com- 

 mission provided comments to the Department of 

 State on a draft agreement prepared by the conference 

 chairman following the third negotiating session held 

 in New York on 15-26 August 1994. The Commis- 

 sion noted that the draft agreement appeared conceptu- 

 ally sound and had many laudable provisions but that 

 some of the provisions should be clarified and streng- 

 thened. The Commission pointed out that, while the 

 draft agreement included basic principles reflecting the 

 precautionary approach and the ecosystem perspective 

 to fishery management, it did not include specific 

 provisions for implementing these principles. 



The Commission also pointed out that some of the 

 terms used in the text could be subject to different 

 interpretations. For example, the term "best scientific 

 evidence available" could be interpreted with respect 

 to abundance estimates to mean either the average or 

 mid-point of a series of estimates or the lower limit of 

 the 95 percent or some other confidence interval 

 around the mean. In this context, the Commission 

 pointed out that, if mid-point estimates are used to 

 make management decisions and the estimates are not 

 accurate, there will be a high risk of overharvesting 

 and depleting both target and non-target species. 



The Commission's comments on the chairman's 

 draft were considered and used by the Department of 

 State in developing U.S. positions for the forth and 

 fifth negotiating sessions. On 4 August 1995, at the 

 conclusion of the fifth negotiating session, the confer- 

 ence delegates adopted by consensus a comprehensive 

 binding agreement, entitled "The Agreement for the 

 Implementation of the Provisions of the United 

 Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 10 

 December 1982 Relating to the Conservation and 

 Management of Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly 

 Migratory Fish Stocks." Among its notable features 

 are a precautionary approach to the management of 

 high seas fisheries and a seven-step process for 

 implementing this approach. The agreement requires 

 states to collect and share data on highly migratory 

 and straddling fish stocks and allows boarding and 

 inspection of vessels that may be fishing in violation 

 of conservation measures adopted by a regional or 

 sub-regional management authority. This latter 

 provision increases the effectiveness of regional 

 fishery management organizations by identifying 



circumstances under which member states may board 

 and inspect the vessels of another country to ensure 

 compliance with conservation measures adopted by the 

 organization. 



The agreement was open for signature on 4 De- 

 cember 1995 and by the end of the year had been 

 signed by 28 countries, including the United States. 

 It will become effective 30 days after the 30th instru- 

 ment of ratification is deposited. 



Code of Conduct for Responsible Fishing 



The need for more effective ecosystem-oriented 

 fisheries management has become obvious in the past 

 decade. In 1991 the United Nations Food and Agri- 

 culture Organization's Committee on Fisheries called 

 for development of a code of conduct for responsible 

 fishing. The potential benefits of a broadly agreed 

 code were confirmed by the International Conference 

 on Responsible Fisheries held in Cancun, Mexico, in 

 May 1992 and the United Nations Conference on 

 Environment and Development held later in 1992. 



In 1994 the Food and Agriculture Organization 

 prepared and circulated a draft code of conduct. The 

 draft was revised in September 1995 to reflect the 

 provisions of the previously described agreement for 

 the conservation and management of straddling fish 

 stocks and highly migratory fish stocks. The Code of 

 Conduct for Responsible Fisheries was finalized and 

 adopted at the Food and Agriculture Organization's 

 Conference of Parties in October 1995. The code 

 provides non-binding guidelines to be used by national 

 and international fisheries management organizations 

 to ensure that fisheries, including aquaculture opera- 

 tions, do not have adverse social, economic, biologi- 

 cal, or ecological impacts. 



International Whaling Commission 



The failure of the International Whaling Commis- 

 sion (IWC) prior to the 1970s to effectively regulate 

 commercial whaling allowed many whale stocks to be 

 reduced to levels approaching biological extinction. 

 This was one of the factors leading to passage of the 

 Marine Mammal Protection Act and the establishment 



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