B-8 



as a commodity", you see. So when little green men come from 



outer space they'll speak of "human", not "humans". There 



are "human" on this planet to De harvested, you see. (Laughter 



So the point is merely a semantic one. Thank you very 



much 



THE CHAIRMAN: Thank you. You should come to Washington 

 more often. (Laughter.) 



We will taKe not of your comments in the preparation of 

 the final EIS. I appreciate having them. 



Yes. 



MS. MITCHELL: My name is Barbara Mitchell. I'm from 

 the International Institute for Environment and Development. 



We've prepared a statement with our preliminary comments 

 on the Draft Enviornmental Impact Statement and, if I may, 

 I'll just summarize now and submit the statement. 



We feel that as the objectives of the regime are described 

 in the statement they are sound. We are concerned, however, 

 that the means by which the Government hopes to meet them are 

 left too vague. 



There seems to be, in effect, a danger that the proposed 

 Government action will result in a regime which is more like 

 the rejected "no-act-now" approaches than the U.S. Govern- 

 ment actually intends. In criticizing the latter approach 

 on page 4, the draft EIS describes the drawbacks of the 

 gradualist approach. It refers to "extensive evidence" 

 from efforts to conserve marine resources in other areas of 

 the world, that "after the fact" regulation is not effective. 

 It notes that "initiation of effective regulation would 

 likely be more difficult once substantial economic stakes 

 in uncontrolled methods of harvesting are created". 



Now, we have no objection to a degree of flexibility 

 in approaching this task, as long as it is backed up by the 

 strongest textual guarantees in the Convention. Now, some 

 of these will be very difficult to negotiate, but it should 

 be borne in mind that decisions made here will be of the 

 greatest and most lasting importance for the future of what 

 may become the world's major fishery. The following elements 

 of the regime would seem to require further consideration: 



