CONCLUSIONS 47 



CONCLUSIONS 



Discretion would no doubt dictate that having discussed the fish- 

 eries problems in the northeastern Pacific, the details of how to meet 

 those problems should be left to those ^vho renegotiate the North 

 Pacific Fisheries Treaty. However, certain conclusions emerge so 

 inevitably in the North Pacific fisheries, and they are derived so natu- 

 rally from a consideration of the prol^lems of fisheries management 

 and development in this region that we feel they should be discussed 

 here. They should provide a basis on which an effective program of 

 development and management might be built. 



Considering the present status of international law concerning 

 high seas fisheries, treaties between nations interested in particular 

 fisheries or areas of the oceans seem to provide the best avenue for 

 the orderly development and management of high seas fisheries. The 

 North Pacific Treaty has already been effective in protecting gains 

 made heretofore in the management of salmon and halibut fisheries 

 and could be made even more effective to deal with present and 

 future problems by proper revision. 



Effective management and exploitation of the fishery resources of 

 the northeastern Pacific cannot be accomplished without cooperation 

 by all those countries that participate in the fishery. At present this 

 includes Canada, Japan, the United States, and the Soviet Union. 

 Thus, any new treaty should provide for the adherence of all these 

 countries, plus any others that might desire to participate in the 

 future. Perhaps this could be covered in the way that it was in the 

 Inter- American Tropical Tuna Treaty (lATTC, 1952), by the use of 

 an open-ended treaty. 



In revising the present North Pacific Treaty, the inadequacy of 

 the concept "maximum sustained yield" as an objective should be 

 recognized and maximum economic yield, or rent, should be given 

 serious consideration and, if possible, substituted for the earlier con- 

 cept. As a matter of fact, the optimum economic level of exploita- 

 tion ^vould require exploitation of the fishery at a lower level of 

 yield, and maintenance of a higher level of abundance than ^vould 

 the criterion of maximum sustained yield. It seems essential that the 

 economic effects of fisheries regulation must be given greater recog- 

 nition in high seas fisheries management. 



The unique character of the fisheries and the fish problems in the 



