indicated a willingness to cooperate with the ICNAF program, and 

 reductions in the GDR catch were written into the regulations even 

 though the GDR was not an ICNAF Member.* 



One positive action taken at the June ICNAF meeting was 

 agreement on measures to improve the international enforcement 

 scheme for ICNAF regulations. Of prime concern to the United 

 States was agreement to extend the scheme to the region off the mid- 

 Atlantic coast south to North Carolina. The United States had 

 sought even greater improvements in the scheme, and some of these 

 proposed improvements are still under study with further action 

 planned at the June 1974 ICNAF annual meeting. Another positive 

 action occurred in 1973: Poland, Romania, and the Soviet Union 

 withdrew reservations that had limited the effectiveness of 

 international inspections on their fishing vessels. 



This past year was the first full year of operation by U.S. vessels 

 off northeastern Brazil under the terms of the U.S. -Brazil shrimp 

 agreement. Operations under the agreement have apparently been 

 carried out to the satisfaction of the fishermen and both 

 Governments, and the agreement has been extended into 1974. Some 

 delays were encountered in getting the implementing legislation, 

 necessary for the agreement, through Congress. However, the 

 legislation was passed in December after an amendment was 

 attached declaring the northern lobster a creature of the continental 

 shelf of the United States. 



Spiny lobster fishermen based in Florida continued to operate 

 within waters over which the Bahamas extended jurisdiction in 

 1969. Enforcement by the Bahamas, generally sporadic, resulted in 

 occasional arrests, fines, and jail sentences. 



The considerable number of U.S. fishing vessel operators from 

 California ports who for many years fished off the coast of Mexico 

 under Mexican licenses faced serious problems at the beginning of 

 1973, due to a new Mexican fishery law that placed serious burdens 

 on foreign licensees. After several rounds of intergovernmental 

 talks, formulas acceptable to both sides were developed, and 

 operations continued without serious incident during the year. 



U.S. fishermen had a good year in the tuna fishery of the eastern 

 tropical Atlantic, in which fishermen from a number of European 

 and Asian nations also participate on a large scale. The International 

 Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas continued to 

 concentrate on coordinating basic research on the tuna stocks of the 

 Atlantic and on the organization of an adequate statistical base for 

 eventual conservation measures. The Commission's first 

 conservation recommendation, a minimum size limit of 3.2 



* The GDR joined ICNAF in May, 1974. 

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