28 



having taken domestic steps to implement the suspension on a 

 voluntary basis. The Parties also convened a working group to 

 elaborate on procedures for implementing the resource 

 monitoring program agreed to at the Fifth Conference. In 

 light of the importance of the issue, the Parties agreed to 

 meet again at a Seventh Conference to be hosted by Japan in 

 June 1993. 



On April 4, 1993, Presidents Clinton and Yeltsin, in the 

 Joint Statement issued at the Vancouver Summit, announced 

 their intention to expand and improve their joint work in the 

 area of environmental protection. They agreed that the United 

 States and Russia would further develop bilateral cooperation 

 in fisheries in the Bering Sea, the North Pacific, and the Sea 

 of Okhotsk, including for the purpose of preservation and 

 reproduction of living marine resources and of monitoring the 

 ecosystem in the north Pacific. 



The Seventh Conference on the Conservation and Management 

 of the Living Marine Resources of the Central Bering Sea was 

 held June 28 through July 1, 1993, in Tokyo. The conference 

 made minimal progress toward concluding the draft agreement 

 for the conservation and management of the pollock resource in 

 the central Bering Sea. Discussion continued among the 

 Parties on the decision-making aspects of the agreement, 

 particularly those relating to the determination of the 

 allowable harvest level of pollock in the central Bering Sea. 

 It was decided that, for purposes of the agreement, the 

 pollock biomass of fishery management area 518 in the United 

 States shall represent 60 percent of the Aleutian Basin 

 pollock biomass. Additionally, there was agreement that the 

 threshold level of Aleutian Basin pollock biomass shall be 

 1 67 million metric tons; there shall be no fishing on the 

 stock if the biomass is below this amount. Furthermore, the 

 Parties agreed that when the percentage of pollock biomass in 

 Area 518 as a percentage of the Aleutian Basin pollock biomass 

 changes, the threshold level shall be amended accordingly. No 

 progress was achieved on other decision-making aspects of the 

 draft agreement. The Parties reviewed steps taken to 

 implement the interim measures for the conservation and 

 management of the living marine resources of the central 

 Bering Sea, including the temporary suspension of fishing tor 

 Aleutian Basin pollock on a voluntary basis in the Bering Sea 

 during 1993 and 1994. The Parties exchanged preliminary 

 information obtained through a research and monitoring program 

 being conducted during the period of the fishing suspension. 



Results of research cruises conducted up to the date of 

 the conference indicated that the status of the pollock 

 resource in the Aleutian Basin still did not provide grounds 

 for optimism. Available information from the research cruises 

 and from trial fishing operations indicated no significant 

 change in the status of the Aleutian Basin pollock stock and 

 that it continued at a low level of abundance. The Parties 

 intended to continue cooperative scientific research. 



The U.S. expressed disappointment that greater progress 

 was not made on the draft agreement. We noted that 

 fundamental work is required in a number of areas; that 

 measuring anything against the overfishing situation which 

 existed in the late 1980's, as some countries have sought to 

 do, is inappropriate; that the interests of the U.S. and 

 Russia, as the coastal States in whose zones nearly 95 percent 

 of the Bering Sea lies, must be taken into account; and that 

 this agreement should be state-of-the-art and must ensure 

 sustainability of resources over time. 



The Parties, having confirmed the necessity of concluding 

 negotiations on a long-term conservation and management 

 agreement, agreed to meet at an Eighth Conference to be hosted 



