B-16 



Therefore, one of the things that has led us to try to 

 seek an international conservation regime is to set up a 

 framework which will, first of all, comm.it the participants 

 in it to conduct their activities in such fashion as to 

 avoid wnat we see are the possible dangers. 



Now, tnis essentially is a qualitative step. A commit- 

 ment to a standard. It is not a management plan. It is 

 nothing more than a commitment to apply a standard. 



The standard we seek to apply and hope to seek agree- 

 ment on is an ecosystem standard — a commitment, if you 

 will, that the system would be managed on this basis. I 

 think that what we're trying to do at this stage is to 

 achieve the framework — establish a framework, an effective 

 framework — which then will apply standards we believe would 

 protect the ecosystem, in the long run. And then as informa- 

 tion is gathered, as levels of harvesting perhaps begin to 

 increase, there will be the mechanism in place that can 

 control them in proper fashion. 



One of the things that we seek in a conservation regime 

 is an international body which will be able to develop 

 management programs. This will in turn require, means for 

 collecting, collating and analyzing scientific data, catch 

 data and all the rest of it. 



So I guess I would say in answer to your question: Yes, 

 we do see very much the distinction between a conservation 

 regime and, let's say, actual management plan. 



We think that the first step one has to take, to es- 

 tablish the regime, is to bind all of those who are in- 

 volved in potential activities — to devise management 

 plans when they're necessary, and to set forth the criteria 

 on which those management plans would be developed. 



I'm not sure whether we're in a position to predict 

 what those management plans would involve. We would argue 

 that they would have to involve the full range of conserva- 

 tion techniques as we understand them — although I would 

 not want to see written into the Convention anything that's 

 purported to be an exhaustive list which might limit the 

 regime's ability to meet new circumstances. 



I don't know whether that answers your question. It 

 seems to me that it is not possible at this particular 

 point in time to devise a detailed management plan to deal 

 with this ecosystem or with any major component subject. 

 What we want to do is to create a system that makes it 

 possible to do so prior to the time at which any large- 

 scale activities take place. 



