2 MANAGEMENT OF HIGH SEAS FISHERIES 



also abstained from fishing herring in Alaska, but in 1959, at the 

 recommendation of the United States, the three countries agreed 

 that this species in Alaska should be removed from abstention 

 (INPFC, 1961). Herring along the inner coast of British Columbia 

 were still protected by abstention of the Japanese. In the fall of 1962 

 Canada recommended, and Japan and the United States agreed to 

 remove the herring stocks of the west coast of the Queen Charlotte 

 Islands from abstention by the Japanese, at the same time agreeing 

 to open halibut stocks in the eastern Bering Sea to Japanese fisher- 

 men. This recominendation was approved by the three governments 

 in the spring of 1963. 



Reports of negotiations in June 1963 in Washington, D.C., which 

 were resumed September 16 in Tokyo, reflect the efforts of the Japa- 

 nese to eliminate the abstention provision from the North Pacific 

 Treaty, and the equal determination of the United States and 

 Canada to retain this protection for their halibut and salmon fish- 

 eries. Published explanations of the views of the three countries are 

 probably not too accurate or complete, since the negotiations have 

 been closed to the public, but in essence the Japanese are said to 

 maintain in part that by agreeing to abstain from fishing certain 

 stocks in the northeastern Pacific they are weakening their position 

 vis a vis other nations in the development of fisheries elsewhere in 

 the world. On the other hand, the United States and Canada main- 

 tain that the stocks from which Japan now abstains exist only 

 because of conservation measures imposed on United States and 

 Canadian fishermen over many years, and that entrance of Japan into 

 these fisheries will not only prejudice the economic viability of the 

 fisheries, but will also endanger the conservation programs now in 

 force. 



The argument has been complicated by the relatively recent en- 

 trance of Soviet fishermen into the trawl fisheries of Bristol Bay and 

 the Gulf of Alaska. Since the U.S.S.R. is not party to the present 

 North Pacific Treaty and, so far as has been made public, has not 

 been invited to participate, the future of the management of the 

 fisheries in this area appears quite obscure. 



The Japanese began fishing king crab in Bristol Bay in the early 

 1930's, without objection by the United States, and moved to enter 

 the Bristol Bay salmon fishery before World War II. The U.S. State 

 Department objected in November 1937 to their participation in the 



