lems of marine pollution by oil. One convention deals with the right of a 

 coastal State to take action on the high seas against a vessel that is polluting 

 or in danger of polluting by oil ; the other convention deals with liability of 

 tanker owners for pollution damage by oil to a coastal State or coastal 

 victims. 



The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) supports a broad range 

 of fishery projects in developing countries, far exceeding the scope of similar 

 projects supported through bilateral and other multilateral channels. The 

 extent of the U.S. contribution to these FAO projects is indicated in table 

 XIII-1. 



The U.N. Economic Commission for Asia and the Far East (ECAFE) 

 continued its investigations of the Continental Shelves of four East Asian 

 nations, including surveys carried out with the assistance of U.S. Navy 

 ships and aircraft as part of the Navy's worldwide survey program. 

 In addition, initial steps were taken to establish a separate coordinating 

 committee for offshore prospecting in areas bordering the Indian Ocean. 



Improving International Fisheries Arrangements 



The basic international fisheries policy of the United States is to encourage 

 expanded and more rational use of the living resources of the sea for the 

 benefit of mankind. To this end, the United States seeks to insure the basic 

 freedoms of the seas, including the freedom of fishing, subject to the limita- 

 tions of sound conservation principles and the need to protect and harmonize 

 the particular interests of nations and of competing groups of fishermen. The 

 United States has strengthened its commitment to the use of tested mech- 

 anisms of international cooperation in fisheries, such as the international 

 fisheries commissions and multilateral and bilateral agreements, for con- 

 serving resources and avoiding conflict among fishermen of diflferent nations. 



The United States actively participates in nine international fisheries 

 commissions as listed in table XIII-2. These commissions carry out or 

 coordinate research on the biology and ecology of fishery stocks which yield 

 an aggregate ahnual harvest to the U.S. industry valued at about $300 mil- 

 lion at the fishermen's level. In keeping with its commitment to finding 

 cooperative solutions to international fishery problems, the United States 

 has joined in bilateral fishery agreements with a number of countries and 

 is engaged in negotiating additional agreements. Among the significant 

 developments in 1969 within the commissions and bilateral arrangements to 

 which it is a party, the United States — 



{ 1 ) Renewed agreements with Japan and signed new agreements 

 with the U.S.S.R. concerning fishing activities, fishing gear conflicts 

 in the northeastern Pacific, and king crab fishing and cooperative 

 fishery research in the Bering Sea; 



(2) Signed an agreement with Poland on conserving fish stocks and 

 protecting the interests of U.S. commercial and sport fishermen off the 

 Middle Atlantic coast; 



(3) Agreed to new arrangements with the U.S.S.R. covering fisheries 

 of the Middle Atlantic region, including cooperative fisheries research 

 projects; 



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