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development of EEZ fisheries, as with other types of natural 

 'resources' development, has been the result of pressure from 

 multilateral and other lending institutions to service national 

 debt. At the same time, many distant water fishing nations are 

 seeking to expand existing fishing operations or secure new 

 opportunities for fisheries on the high seas in response to a 

 variety of factors. Amongst these factors are the depletion of 

 fisheries within national zones, overcapitalization of distant 

 water fleets, the increasing exclusion of distant water fleets 

 from national zones and rising international demand for fisheries 

 products. 



As a result, fishing has increased substantially in international 

 waters. Although data on fish catches on the high seas is 

 seriously deficient, FAO estimated that in the mid 1970s, the 

 period of the initial adoption of 200 mile EEZs, high seas 

 catches accounted for 1-5% of total marine catch. Based on 

 estimated catches at that time, this would translate to an 

 approximate figure of 0.6 - 3 million metric tons. For 1989, 

 estimates of high seas catch ranged between 7 to 12 million tons. 



Most straddling, highly migratory and high seas stocks are either 

 fully or overexploited and a number of these stocks, such as the 

 Aleutian Basin stock of Alaska pollock in the Bering Sea and the 

 Grand Banks stock of Northern Cod in the Northwest Atlantic, have 

 been severely depleted or collapsed. 



