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virtually all fisheries for straddling and highly migratory 

 fish stocks and fishing on the high seas are currently conducted 

 in areas where regional, multilateral, fisheries management 

 regimes are weak or in some cases, such as in the North Pacific 

 tuna fisheries, non-existent. Most regional conventions operate 

 on a consensus basis with no effective mechanisms for 

 establishing necessary conservation measures in the absence of 

 unanimous consent. 



Where regional agreements do contain measures designed to afford 

 at least some minimum level of conservation, these measures are 

 consistently undermined by exemption clauses, vessel reflagging, 

 fishing by countries not party to the agreement, and the absence 

 of any effective independent means of monitoring, surveillance or 

 enforcement. 



The rapid increase in technological capacity and the high 

 mobility of high seas fleets makes it essential for all nations 

 to cooperate in establishing effective global mechanisms for 

 fisheries conservation in international waters. The issue of high 

 seas driftnet fishing is a case in point. 



Large-scale driftnet fishing expanded rapidly on the high seas of 

 the North Pacific in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In the mid 

 1980s high seas driftnet fleets began moving into the South 

 Pacific and the Indian Oceans and, in all probability, other 

 regions as well. Of special note, the U.S. Congress played a Tcey 



