MARINE MAMMAL COMMISSION — Annual Report for 1995 



Retrospective Analysis of High Seas Driftnet 

 Fisheries in the North Pacific 



Late in the 1970s and early in the 1980s large-scale 

 driftnet fisheries for squid and tuna began to develop 

 in parts of the North Pacific not subject to national 

 jurisdiction (i.e., high seas areas). Nets used in these 

 fisheries were constructed of lightweight monofila- 

 ment, and individual vessels were able to deploy as 

 much as 60 km of net each night. By the mid-1980s 

 more than 800 vessels from Japan, Taiwan, and the 

 Republic of Korea were engaged in these fisheries. 

 Together they deployed as much as 40,000 km of net 

 nightly. The catch included millions of non-target 

 species, including finfish, sharks, seabirds, turtles, 

 and marine mammals. 



Because of the concerns and uncertainty regarding 

 the magnitude and possible effects of the bycatch, the 

 U.S. Congress passed the Driftnet Impact Monitoring, 

 Assessment, and Control Act in 1987. This Act 

 required the Department of Commerce, through the 

 Department of State, to negotiate monitoring and 

 enforcement agreements with nations whose high seas 

 driftnet fishing fleets were taking marine resources 

 belonging to the United States. Agreements were 

 subsequently negotiated with Japan, the Republic of 

 Korea, and Taiwan, and observer programs instituted 

 pursuant to these agreements substantiated that large 

 numbers of finfish, sharks, sea turtles, and marine 

 mammals were being caught incidentally in these 

 fisheries. Programs to monitor compliance with these 

 agreements also documented illegal fishing in areas 

 closed to fishing. 



The concerns and uncertainties regarding the 

 effects of high seas driftnet fisheries on marine 

 mammals and other marine organisms led the United 

 States to co-sponsor Resolution 44/225 adopted by the 

 United Nations General Assembly in December 1989. 

 This resolution called for a moratorium on large-scale 

 driftnet fishing — i.e., fishing with drift gillnets 

 longer than 2.5 km — on the high seas of all oceans 

 beginning on 30 June 1992. In December 1991 the 

 General Assembly adopted Resolution 44/215, which 

 changed the effective date of the moratorium from 30 

 June to 31 December 1992. The moratorium became 

 effective on 31 December 1992. 



Anticipating adoption of Resolution 44/215, the 

 United States enacted the High Seas Driftnet Fisheries 

 Enforcement Act in November 1992. Among other 

 things, this Act denied U.S. port privileges to any 

 vessel known to engage in large-scale driftnet fishing 

 after 31 December 1992. It directed the Secretary of 

 the Treasury to prohibit imports of fish, fish products, 

 and sport fishing equipment from any nation whose 

 nationals engage in driftnet fishing in violation of the 

 United Nations moratorium or which fails to take 

 appropriate action to terminate such fishing. 



The Marine Mammal Commission believed that a 

 retrospective analysis of the squid and tuna driftnet 

 fisheries in the North Pacific might help to identify 

 factors responsible for ineffective management of high 

 seas fisheries. The Commission therefore funded a 

 study to compile and analyze available information 

 concerning development of these fisheries. The study 

 report was completed and published in 1995 (see 

 Appendix B, Northridge 1995). 



The report indicated that development of the North 

 Pacific high seas squid driftnet fishery apparently was 

 precipitated by at least three things: (1) the high 

 market value of squid, (2) declining catches, probably 

 caused by overfishing, in coastal squid fisheries, and 

 (3) the lower cost of driftnet fishing compared to 

 other methods for catching squid. It also indicated 

 that Japanese success late in the 1970s led to the 

 development of Taiwanese and Korean fisheries with 

 total catches by the three nations exceeding 300,000 

 tons by the late 1980s. 



The report indicated that there apparently was no 

 effort to determine the standing stock biomass or 

 productivity of the principal target species or to 

 prevent catch levels from exceeding the annual re- 

 placement yield. It points out that more than 100 

 vertebrate and squid species are known to have been 

 caught, including at least 15 species of marine mam- 

 mals, 23 species of seabirds, and 60 species of fish. 

 In most cases available information was insufficient to 

 assess either population- or ecosystem-level effects. 

 The level and taxonomic diversity of catches suggest 

 that the fisheries may have affected basic ecosystem 

 structure as well as the size and productivity of the 

 stocks directly affected. 



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