APPENDIX VI APPENDIX VI 
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Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission 
The Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission was established by 
conventions between Costa Rica and the United States on May 31, 1949. 
At present its membership numbers eight and includes Canada, Costa Rica, 
France, Japan, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, and the United States. In 
addition, vessels of five other nations are fishing or have recently 
fished tuna in the area covered by the convention: Bermuda, Colombia, 
Ecuador, The Netherlands, Antilles, Peru, and Spain. 
The primary function of the convention is to inquire into the 
condition of yellowfin and skipjack tuna and to recommend joint conser- 
vation measures so as to manage effectively these species and produce on 
the average the maximum sustainable yield. 
In summary, the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission has been 
highly successful from a technical point of view; that is, the yellowfin 
and skipjack stocks of Eastern tropical Pacific Ocean have been managed 
in such a way as to sustain high levels of catch without serious damage 
to the stocks (even though at the present time there may be some over- 
fishing of yellowfin tuna). Still the political problems within the 
commission have become increasingly severe in recent years. The devel- 
oping nations wish to limit the growth of the United States yellowfin 
fleet and catch, and these smaller, less affluent nations wish to have 
directly allocated to them a greater proportion of the catch. The 
United States tuna fishing industry has, of course, resisted this 
pressure and thus conflict has occurred. The result has been an increas- 
ing allocation of catch to the developing nations, particularly Mexico. 
Because of this and because a number of other countries have entered the 
fishery, some of whom are not members of the Commission, the proportion 
of the catch taken by the large and efficient United States fleet has 
dropped to its present level of about 68 percent. When the regulatory 
scheme was put into effect, the United States catch was about 90 percent 
of the total yellowfin tuna taken in the Commission regulatory area. 
With the imminent extension of jurisdiction by Mexico and other coastal 
South American states, the United States government will need to make 
accommodations if it expects to preserve an economic United States 
distant-water tuna fleet. 
International Convention For the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas 
The International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas 
was established by a Convention in 1966. Present parties to the Convention 
include: Brazil, Canada, Cuba, France, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Japan, 
Republic of Korea, Morocco, Portugal, Senegal, South Africa, Spain, and 
the United States of America. 
The Commission (unlike IATTC) has no management function and no 
permanent scientific staff. One justification for the lack of permanent 
scientific staff involves the decision to form a working relationship 
between the Commission and the Food and Agricultural Organization of the 
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