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Greenpeace's basic concerns and views regarding reforms that are 

 needed with respect to the international conservation and 

 management of fisheries are addressed in an "NGO Statement: A 

 Call for Global Fisheries Reform." That statement was presented 

 at the opening session of the July 1993 UN fisheries conference. 

 As of mid-August 1993, Greenpeace and nearly 130 other 

 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) from around the world have 

 endorsed the NGO Statement. I ask that the NGO Statement, and 

 accompanying list of endorsing organizations, be made part of 

 this hearing record. 



Fundamental to the issue of fisheries conservation and the 

 exploitation of living marine 'resources' is the adoption of a 

 precautionary approach to fisheries management. The precautionary 

 approach has gained increasingly widespread acceptance - 

 reflecting evolving State practice on the national and 

 international level - in a variety of international legal 

 instruments. Specific to the issue of fisheries, the 

 precautionary approach formed the basis of UN General Assembly 

 Resolutions 44/225, 45/197 and 46/215 on large-scale pelagic 

 driftnet fishing and its direct relevance to oceans-related 

 issues has been acknowledged in Chapter 17 of Agenda 21 of the 

 1992 United Nations Conference on Environment and Development 

 (UNCED) . 



The obligation to conserve must also include the elaboration 

 of standards for minimizing waste, bycatch and discards, 



