APPENDIX VI APPENDIX VI 
84 
encouraged to follow suit if they have not already done so. If this should 
happen, several difficult problems, already in existence, will be accentuated. 
These include: 
(a) the absence of management capacity within coastal nations still 
regarded as in the process of development; 
(b) the difficulty in reaching agreement on total allowable catch 
for heavily exploited stocks,-when the coastal nations fishing in the area 
share authority over the same stocks; 
(c) the lack of criteria available to coastal nations for guidance 
in the setting of national quotas for shared stocks, particularly when 
previous experience is not applicable; and 
(d) the likelihood that southern coastal nations, in seeking access 
to the rich northern fishing grounds, will be unable to effectively 
compete with distant water fleets.?3 
2. Indian Ocean Fishery Commission (IOFC) 
The Indian Ocean Fishery Commission (IOFC) was established in 1967 via 
a resolution of the FAO Ccuncil. It claims competency over all species in 
the Indian Ocean as well as in adjacent sea areas (not including, however, 
the Antarctic Ocean area). 
The terms of reference of the IOFC are sufficiently broad so that 
tentative movements toward management have already been taken. Ad hoc 
groups have been set up for shrimp, for the fisheries in the Gulf of 
Oman and the Persian Gulf, and for tuna. There does not appear either 
to be any need for changing the defined area of competence, the member- 
ship or the internal structure of the organization. 
The reason for this, besides adequate flexibility in the original 
terms of reference, is that in the Indian Ocean the major problems 
are the ones of development, not management. This places a high 
priority not only on facilitating surveys and stock assessments but 
equally on increasing coastal state capabilities to catch, process 
and market fish. There is clearly the need for management measures 
to be implemented on shrimp and there is a need for regulation of 
the larger tunas, though the skipjack resources are under-exploited. 
13- award Miles, An Assessment of the Impact of Proposed Changes in the Law 
of the Sea on Regional Fishery Commissions, on FAO Technical Assistance 
Programmes in Fisheries and on the FAO Committee on Fisheries and Department 
of Fisheries, (COFI: c/4/76 Inf. 3. Prepared for Committee on Fisheries, 
Sub-Committee on the Development of Cooperation with International Organi- 
zations Concerned with Fisheries, 4th session, Lisbon, 8-12 March 1976. 
Rome: FAO, February 1976), p. 18. 
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