within the New Zealand Exclusive Economic Zone and territorial 

 sea and prohibited driftnet fishing vessels from using New 

 Zealand ports. In June 1989, the South Pacific Forum Fisheries 

 Agency, a subsidiary body of the South Pacific Forum, which 

 includes New Zealand, Australia, and other South Pacific island 

 states, expressed concern over "indiscriminate and irresponsible 

 use of driftnets" by Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea in the South 

 Pacific. The agency called for a cessation of driftnet fishing 

 in the South Pacific Ocean until a satisfactory management regime 

 to monitor and assess these fisheries is established. 



In July 1989, the Government of Australia announced that it 

 would press for a global ban on the use of driftnets. Also in 

 July, the South Pacific Forum approved the "Tarawa Declaration," 

 which calls on the international community to support and 

 cooperate in the negotiation of a regional convention to 

 establish a driftnet-f ree zone in the South Pacific region and, 

 pending conclusion of this convention, calls for an immediate 

 cessation of driftnet operations in the region by Japanese, 

 Taiwanese, and South Korean vessels. At the 29th session of the 

 South Pacific Conference in Guam in October 1989, the South 

 Pacific Commission, which includes the United States, supported a 

 resolution calling for an immediate ban on driftnet fishing in 

 the South Pacific region to allow time for developing a 

 comprehensive fishery management program. 



Late in November 1989, in Wellington, New Zealand, several 

 South Pacific nations signed the Convention for the Prohibition 

 of Fishing with Long Driftnets in the South Pacific. The 

 Convention bans driftnet fishing within the 200-mile Exclusive 

 Economic Zones of the signatory nations and within certain 

 adjacent high seas areas designated by the Convention. Two 

 protocols specifying the terms of the Convention and the respon- 

 sibilities of the parties have yet to be finalized. They will be 

 addressed at a meeting set for March 1990 in Wellington. 



At the November 1989 meeting of the Commission for the 

 Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources in Hobart, 

 Australia, the United States delegation called attention to the 

 possibility that seabirds and marine mammals may be more 

 vulnerable to incidental capture in driftnets than in other types 

 of fishing gear. The delegation requested and received 

 confirmation of its understanding that no gillnets currently were 

 being used in the Southern Ocean, nor was their use planned by 

 members of the Antarctic Commission. 



In December 1989, the United Nations General Assembly 

 unanimously adopted a resolution on "large-scale pelagic driftnet 

 fishing and its impact on the living marine resources of the 

 world's oceans and seas." The resolution calls for a ban on 

 driftnet fishing in the South Pacific Ocean, beginning 1 July 

 1991, and for a worldwide ban beginning 30 June 1992 unless 



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