150 BULLETIN OF THE BUREAU OF FISHERIES. 
societies, including the New York Zoological Society, the American Society of 
Vertebrate Paleontologists, and the American Society for the Advancement of 
Science. These resolutions were closely similar. That of the last-named society 
was as follows: 
Resolved, That the American Society for the Advancement of Science will aid in any 
way practicable those measures legislative, international and local, which will prevent 
the now imminent extermination of the great marine vertebrates, especially the cetaceans 
and manatees, seals, green and other turtles on the coasts of the United States, or on the 
high seas. 
It is beyond the limits of this paper to outline the proper direction of the 
efforts to preserve these resources. But in view of the fact that the fisheries on 
the high seas represent the greatest economic resource which the nations of the 
world hold in common for their joint use, it seems that there might be wisdom 
in a general treaty or international union for their consideration. Already there 
are several treaties of this nature with special international offices for the purpose 
of satisfying economic and other nonpolitical interests, such as the Universal 
Postal Union, established in 1874, the Union for the Protection of Industrial 
Property in 1883, and the Union for the Protection of Works of Literature and 
Art in 1886. More closely allied to our subject is the convention in behalf of 
the preservation of wild animals, birds, and fish in Africa, which was signed in 
London on May 19, 1900, by France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Portugal, 
Spain, and the Kongo Free State. 
And in this gathering of representatives from so many powerful states, what 
subject more worthy of consideration than the economic conservation of the 
resources of the seas. A brotherhood of great nations arranging not the parti- 
tion of nature’s inheritance among themselves for speedy waste and despoilment, 
but the preservation of that inheritance for beneficial use in common by all the 
people of the earth; each to draw upon that storehouse of wealth only in accord- 
ance with the common welfare of all, for the sustenance of its citizens, for the 
comfort of its people, and for the advancement of civilization throughout the 
world. 
@ See Martens, Nouveau Recueil Général de Traités et autres Actes relatifs aux Rapports de Droit 
international. Deuxiéme série, t. Xxx, p. 430. 
— 
