29 



ready out there invested in these vessels, and no one, as we have 

 learned in our experiences in New England or whereever it is, no 

 one wants to be the first to bite the bullet. 



They are going to wait until there is something that forces them 

 to bite the bullet, and then, indeed, people begin to disinvest, or do 

 the buy-backs, sell-backs, or whatever, but until there is that pres- 

 sure to confront it, everybody is going to say, "Well, I am going to 

 get my last fish," and then you may just wipe out the chance for 

 recovery. 



I think probably we will reach that crisis level where nobody is 

 going to be fishing for a while. We will do on a magnified scale 

 what we did with striped bass or with other species, until they 

 come back, but God knows — we do not even know whether the eco- 

 svstem will support rebounding fish stocks. One species may at 

 tnat point be so dominant that another one simply never comes 

 back. We are dealing with the unknown here, and because we are, 

 we ought to invoke the precautionary principle and be more careful 

 faster. 



Ambassador Colson. Senator, if I might just add a comment, it 

 is a question of human resources, almost, in our work. One of the 

 things we want to try to do is do a better job, particularly with 

 some of the nontraditional fishing countries, because while we have 

 had a relationship with the Japans, the Koreas, the Taiwans, and 

 the European countries over the years, what we are seeing is that 

 as those countries begin to engage in more responsible fishing be- 

 havior, that a lot of effort is shifting into other countries that have 

 not traditionally been major high seas fishing countries. For in- 

 stance, the expansion of effort in the Western Pacific is largely Chi- 

 nese and Indonesian and Filipino, which are countries that we 

 have not had the bilateral relationship on fisheries that we have 

 had with some of our traditional partners in this area. 



One of the things we will do, as we have the resources to do it, 

 is begin to make those connections. It is very important, particu- 

 larly, I think, with respect to China, to begin to have a dialog with 

 them on this kind of an issue, because if they begin to go down this 

 road it is going to be very hard to pull them back. 



Senator Kerry. I agree completely with that. It should not, how- 

 ever, be a question of resources for us, because of the urgency. We 

 have folks in the Agriculture Department who could be transferred 

 to work on fisheries issues as the number of farmers goes down. 

 We are just not allocating our resources very effectively. 



Senator Stevens. 



Senator Stevens. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 



Mr. Ambassador, under part 15 of the Law of the Sea Treaty 

 draft, as I understand it, any dispute concerning interpretation or 

 application of the Law of the Sea Convention shall at the request 

 of any signatory be submitted to compulsory dispute settlement 

 under one of three tribunals, or panels. They are set forth in the 

 draft, as I understand it. 



Under all three of these, the decision of the tribunal or panel 

 would be final, and could not be appealed, according to this draft. 



Now, I am told the administration believes that our existing 

 agreements, such as the Bering Sea Donut Agreement that you 

 mentioned, the North Pacific Anadromous Stocks Convention, or 



