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Senator Kerry. And ICCAT does not? 



Mr. BURNEY. I believe that ICCAT is extremely political as it 

 deals with the bluefin tuna issue. That is a very difficult issue be- 

 cause there is a limited amount of resource and a lot of people that 

 want it, and as a result I believe ICCAT has been more involved 

 with allocation than science for a number of years, and when 

 science does creep in there are differing views on the science. It is 

 not just one scientific body saying this is what the science is. I 

 think that makes it very difficult. 



Senator Kerry. Have you seen the implementing language on 

 the FAO agreement? 



Mr. BuRNEY. Yes. 



Senator Kerry. Do you agree with it? 



Mr. Burney. Yes. 



Senator Kerry. Do you support it? 



Mr. Burney. Yes. 



Senator Kerry. Mr. Benton, in your testimony you raised the 

 question of potential conflict between the need for strong ecosystem 

 management to ensure that straddling stocks such as Bering Sea 

 pollock are protected, and the need to clarify the rights of coastal 

 states to manage stocks primarily within their 200-mile zone. This 

 goes back partly to my first question. How do you resolve the ten- 

 sion that exists there? 



Mr. Benton. Well, Mr. Chairman, the tension really comes about 

 from the experience we had again with the Central Bering Sea. We 

 had a situation where we could get the countries participating in 

 those negotiations to come to the table. That was not a problem. 

 And we could get them to discuss what we ought to do. That was 

 not a problem. 



Getting an agreement on what to do about the problem took 3 

 or so years and 10 sets of negotiations. What I was trying to cap- 

 ture was that, if we are going to become a party 1 this new strad- 

 dling stocks agreement, then the agreement needs, at least with re- 

 gard to straddling stocks, to give us a little bit better handle on 

 how we can exercise our rights regarding those straddling stocks. 



In the case of the Bering Sea, 60 to 80 percent of the spawning 

 is inside our zone. The Donut Hole is 10 percent of the area of the 

 Bering Sea; the rest is in either our zone or the Russian zone. It 

 seems to us that we have a primary interest in those straddling 

 stocks. We do not necessarily believe that you have to come out of 

 the U.N. conference with a declaration that coastal states have a 

 sovereign interest of some sort over those straddling stocks, but it 

 should be some kind of strengthening of the role of coastal states 

 with regard to straddling stocks. 



It is very different in highly migratory species. One of the prob- 

 lems with this text and the approach that has been used at the ne- 

 gotiations is that you are dealing with two distinct kinds of situa- 

 tions, straddling stocks and highly migratory species, with much of 

 the same kind of language. And frankly, if we had our druthers we 

 would have that distinction more accurately and precisely drawn so 

 that measures that were particular to straddling stocks would be 

 focused on straddling stocks. That would allow you to have more 

 precise, and I think more meaningful, language in the agreement, 



