ffiXICAN nSHSRY LEGISUTION 



Cooperatives are also granted conmon e:xploitation zones 



II in -which it is absolutely prohibited to issue permits to private 



individuals for the exploitation of the species referred to " (Appendix II, 



Art. 5). 



The following species have been reserved exclusively for capture by cooperative fishermen 

 throughout Klexico: 



Lobsters and crawfish (Appendix XIV) 



Oysters (Appendix XV) 



Octopi (Appendix XVI) 



Squid (Appendix XVI) 



Shrimp (Appendices XVII and XVIII) 



Clams (Appendix XIX) 



In addition, sharks have been partially reserved for cooperatives (Appendix VIII); 

 totoaba, curbina and cabrilla are reserved for cooperatives in the Gulf of California north 

 of latitude 27° (Appendix XX) and the various species of abalones alon^ the west coast of 

 Lower California are reserved for the cooperatives (Appendix XXI). 



Because of more or less flagrant and open violation or circumvention of the principles 

 contained in the cooperative laws, various attempts have been made to strengthen them. 

 Ebcamples of these attempts are the order prohibiting the granting of fishing permits to 

 cooperatives that are not legally authorized (Appendix XXIII) and the decree establishing 

 a severance tax of one peso a kilogram (approximately 10^ U.S. per pound) on all fishery 

 products from the West Coast of Mexico that were reserved for the cooperatives (Appendix 

 XXIV), Legally recognized cooperatives were granted a rebate or an exenqstion from this tax. 



In many of the fishing permits granted cooperatives there appears a clause which permits 

 them to xise foreign boats if they do not have sufficient or suitable boats of their own. It 

 was on the basis of this clause that several American shrimp boats were permitted, for a brief 

 time, to fish shrimp in Mexican waters of the Gulf of Mexico. 



TERRITORIAL V.ATER S 



We have been at divergence ?rith Mexico over the problem of territorial waters since 

 1906 when we objected to the Mexican law of 1902 (Appendix XXV) which claimed fiscal juris- 

 diction over fisheries to a distance of 20 kilometers fran the coast. Tois same law (loc. 

 cit.) claimed as territorial waters only those waters extending to a distance of three miles 

 from the coast. 



In 1935 Mexico changed her stand and claimed nine nautical miles as territorial waters. 

 The August 29, 1935 decree made no mention of fiscal claims beyond nine miles. This latter 

 decree is not included in the appendices as a similar claim has been reiterated in a more 

 recent law (Appendix XXVI, Art. 17-II-1). 



Following President Truman's Proclamation of September 28, 1945, concerning marine 

 subsoil resources and fisheries. President Avila Camacho of Mexico made a somewhat similar 

 proclamation on October 29, 1945 (Appendix XXVII). This was later (January 1946) followed 

 by the Mexican Chamber of Deputies and Senate passing amendjnents to the Constitution wherein 

 subsoil resources on the continental shelf and fishery resources in the waters over the shelf 

 were claimed for Mexico (Appendix XXVIII). The amendments have not yet been proclaimed. 



Finis . 



June 9, 1947, 



U 



