SUMMARY 



STATEMENT ■ TYPE : Final Environmental Impact Statement 

 PREPARED BY: Department of State 



(Attention: Mr. William Mansfield, III 



Office of Environmental Affairs 



(Room 7820) 

 Department of State 

 Washington, D. C. 20520) 



1. Type of Action: Negotiation of a treaty 



2. Brief Description of Proposed Action: 



The United States will participate in the negotiation 

 of a regime to conserve Antarctic marine living resources. 

 All living resources in waters south of the Antarctic 

 Convergence, except whales and except seals south of 60 

 degrees south latitude, are affected. The purpose of the 

 regime would be to ensure that any harvesting of Antarctic 

 marine living resources take place in accordance with 

 sound conservation principles. There are no present or 

 proposed commercial fishing operations by the United States 

 in Antarctic waters. 



3. Summary of Environmental Impacts and Adverse Environ- 

 mental Effects: 



Commercial harvesting will result in the continuing 

 and increasing removal of fish and krill from Antarctic 

 waters. Future harvesting may include squid, birds and 

 seals as well. It is anticipated that krill will be the 

 most heavily exploited resource. Populations of organisms 

 which feed on krill and are themselves potentially harvest- 

 able resources will be reduced as krill availability de- 

 clines due to harvesting. The recovery rate of protected 

 baleen whale species may be slowed. Under the proposed 

 conservation regime, harvesting would be regulated to 

 minimize the impact on the Antarctic ecosystem. The 

 adverse impacts of a controlled harvest would be consider- 

 ably less than impacts of uncontrolled harvesting which 

 is anticipated in the absence of an international agree- 

 ment on a conservation regime. Increased harvesting will 

 increase shipping traffic in the Antarctic region. Ship 

 or shore based factory facilities may cause local pollu- 

 tion problems. Increasing human activity will increase 

 disturbance of the Antarctic marine ecosystem which is of 



