APPENDIX VI APPENDIX 
Alaska and the Bering Sea 
All foreign fishing now taking place off the United States coast 
takes place within the 200-mile limit except for Japanese high seas 
salmon fishing west of 175° West longitude in waters adjacent to the 
Aleutian Islands. The Northeastern Pacific and Bering Sea groundfish 
fisheries of Japan, the U.S.S.R., Korea and Taiwan take place within the 
200-mile zone of the United States and Canada. These fisheries are, to 
one degree or another and with the exception of the small effort by 
Taiwan flag vessels, being conducted within the framework of existing 
international treaties and executive agreements. 
The International North Pacific Fisheries Convention includes 
Canada, Japan, and the United States. Convention waters include all 
waters, other than the territorial waters, of the North Pacific Ocean 
(see Table 2). After several years of study beginning in 1955, it was 
found that significant amounts of salmon of North American origin 
migrated west of the provisional abstention line at 175° West longitude. 
Thus the Japanese, in conducting their high seas salmon fisheries west 
of this line, were taking substantial quantities of salmon of North 
American origin. The Japanese fishery was found to be harvesting 
sockeye salmon from Bristol Bay, Alaska. Attempts were made within the 
Commission to move the abstention line further west after discovering 
the extent of the Japanese interceptions of Bristol Bay sockeye salmon. 
These attempts were resisted by Japan and the abstention line remains at 
175° West longitude. Nevertheless, the INPFC has been helpful in 
preventing depletion of those stocks such as salmon and halibut fished 
by all three member nations, Canada, Japan, and the United States. It 
has also encouraged cooperation among member nations in gathering scien- 
tific information for stock assessment. On the other hand, the limited 
membership of Canada, Japan, and the United States and the restricted 
objectives of the Convention, have meant that the Convention has been 
useful only with respect to the relatively narrow objectives of the 
Convention and thus has applied only to the three member nations. It is 
reasonable to conclude that Japan has viewed the Convention as more 
restrictive of Japan's fishermen and of less utility than to the fishermen 
of Canada and the United States. 
The North Pacific Fur Seal Convention will also come under review 
with the extension of United States fishery jurisdiction. Since its 
inception, this Convention has been uniquely successful in accomplishing 
its objectives. The Pacific fur seal herd was reduced by Soviet, American 
Canadian, and Japanese hunters at about the turn of the last century to 
a total of approximately 110,000 animals by about 1911. Since that 
time, international conservation agreements among the four sealing 
nations of the North Pacific Ocean, Canada, Japan, the United States, 
and the U.S.S.R., have permitted a rehabilitation of these resources 
until in recent years fur seals have numbered well over one million 
animals and the production rate has been between 30 and 60 thousand 
animals a year on a sustainable basis. 
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VI 
