CONSERVATION OF THE PACIFIC HALIBUT, AN 

 INTERNATIONAL EXPERIMENT 



By WiLUAM F. Thompson 

 Internatio7ial Fisheries Commission, United States and Canada, Seattle, Wash. 



[With 2 plates] 



When Canada and the United States ratified the Pacific halibut 

 treaty on October 21, 1924, there was begun the first international 

 attempt at conservation and rebuilding of a marine fishery. It 

 applied to the Pacific coast halibut, the giant flounder that lives 

 on the continental shelf from California to Bering Sea. 



This first treaty placed in the hands of an international commis- 

 sion power to gather facts uniformly, as a joint enterprise, in both 

 the United States and Canada. Six years later the treaty was re- 

 written to give it powers of regulation in conformity with its find- 

 ings. Today it can report initial success in a difficult problem, for 

 since the new treaty came into being in 1931 the halibut banks have 

 steadily improved. 



The members of the International Fisheries Commission at its 

 inception in 1924 were as follows : John P. Babcock, Victoria, B. C, 

 chairman; Miller Freeman, Seattle, Wash., secretary; Henry 

 O'Malley, Washington, D. C. ; and William A. Found, Ottawa, Can- 

 ada. Mr. O'Malley and Mr. Freeman have resigned. In their places, 

 Frank T. Bell, Washington, D. C, and Edward W. Allen, Seattle, 

 Wash., have been appointed, the latter now being secretary. 



Marine fisheries, of which that for halibut is the most truly deep- 

 sea, have given both scientist and economist a subject for earnest 

 consideration during the past 40 years. They are immensely valu- 

 able, and yet not enough is known of most of them either to confirm 

 or deny serious uneasiness as to their permanence. This lack of 

 knowledge is due not only to their inaccessibility, but to their new- 

 ness; not only to the difficulty of obtaining proper international co- 

 operation in their study, but also to the complexity of the biological 

 problem involved. 



They differ from all other resources other than water and air in 

 being mainly in international waters. National ownership of land 



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