against foreign fishing vessels, and some have been settled 

 successfully. 



International regulation continues to be part of the fisherman's 

 life. Strong competition for dwindling stocks in established fishing 

 areas prompted the United States and other nations to seek more 

 equitable arrangements through international fishery commissions. 

 The response has been the establishment of new or reduced quotas, 

 size limits, and inspection schemes, as well as a new technique for 

 allocating quotas. 



The International Commission for the Northwest Atlantic 

 Fisheries (ICNAF), under the authority of the December 1971 amend- 

 ment to the ICNAF Convention, adopted at a February 1972 Special 

 Meeting national quota regulations for the depleted herring stocks 

 off the United States and Canada. These regulations, which became 

 effective in September 1972, represent the first national catch quota 

 scheme applied in a major, multinational fishery. For the first time 

 the regulations were formulated using economic and technical 

 considerations as well as the basic scientific criteria historically 

 used in fisheries management. One basis for allocation was 

 preference for coastal fisheries, thus helping to redress the 

 competitive disadvantage of the U.S. coastal fishing vessels against 

 foreign ocean-going fishing vessels. This step may be the most 

 significant move since the inception of international fisheries 

 management many years ago. A second Special ICNAF Meeting in 

 January 1973 modified and extended the herring quota scheme 

 through 1973. 



At its regular annual meeting in June 1972, ICNAF took steps to 

 extend this method for formulating fisheries allocations to other 

 species and fishing areas where some depletion or a potential for 

 depletion exists. This action was an attempt to head off problems 

 before they materialized. Of the 23 regulatory proposals adopted at 

 the Annual Meeting, 18 dealt with quotas for the 1973 season, and 15 

 of those allocated quotas among member nations. Allocations were 

 made for three of the stocks among all (then) 15 members of the 

 Commission. The quotas became effective on January 1, 1973, for the 

 1973 season. 



Monitoring of foreign fishing operations off our coast showed that 

 the fishing effort was significantly increased in 1972. This expanded 

 activity threatened to undermine progress on national quota 

 allocations and posed a serious danger that small stocks available to 

 U. S. coastal fisheries might be decimated by incidental catches. The 

 size of the effort might also disperse stocks, thus making it difficult 

 or impossible for the small American fishing vessels to operate 

 economically. Accordingly, the United States issued an urgent call in 

 October 1972 for a special ICNAF Meeting in January 1973 to 

 consider limitation of fishing effort. That meeting failed to reach 

 agreement on the U.S. proposal to reduce and control fishing effort, 

 but did not reject it. A special expert group was established by 

 ICNAF to study the many difficult and complex questions posed by 

 the U. S. proposal so that the Commission may consider it further. 



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