The agreements with the U.S.S.R. were negotiated in February and 

 June 1973. They pertain to fishing the king and tanner crab in the 

 eastern Bering Sea and to arrangements whereby the U.S.S.R. may 

 fish and conduct cargo-transfer operations in limited areas within 

 the contiguous fisheries zone of the United States extending 9 miles 

 beyond the 3-mile territorial sea. In return for these privileges the 

 Soviet Union agrees to certain limitations on its fishing operations 

 on the high seas outside the contiguous fisheries zone. The new 

 versions of the U.S. -U.S.S.R. North Pacific agreements include 

 substantial conservation improvements from the U.S. point of view, 

 especially limits to the Soviet catch of certain species. The new 

 version of the U.S. -U.S.S.R. Mid-Atlantic agreement also contains 

 improvements including greater protection for vulnerable bottom 

 species off New England. 



The two countries also negotiated and signed a new agreement 

 applicable to the northeastern Pacific and the northwestern Atlantic 

 Oceans. It provides for consideration, by claims boards with joint 

 membership, of claims advanced by a national of either State against 

 a national of the other State regarding financial loss resulting from 

 damage to the national's fishing vessel or gear. The boards will 

 consider claims voluntarily submitted by either side and will seek 

 conciliation through factfinding. Juridical rights of U.S. and Soviet 

 nationals remain unaffected. The countries also adopted a set of 

 interim rules to govern the conduct of fishing and to prevent conflicts 

 until further negotiations. 



A major difficulty in regulating the North Pacific fisheries has 

 been the relative lack of scientific knowledge concerning some of the 

 major species. To obtain this knowledge requires cooperation in 

 research by all the countries engaged in major fisheries and 

 important steps were taken in this direction in 1973. For the first 

 time the North Pacific Fisheries Commission agreed to extend its 

 studies to all species of mutual concern, rather than being limited to 

 stocks exploited by two or more of the three parties. Also, the United 

 States and the Republic of Korea under a bilateral agreement 

 undertook the first of continuing annual meetings to exchange 

 biological and statistical data and to review their fisheries in the 

 North Pacific. 



At the June 1973 meeting of the International Whaling Commission 

 (IWC), the United States again proposed a 10-year moratorium on 

 commercial whaling. This proposal was supported by a simple 

 majority of the member States, but not by the three-fourths majority 

 necessary for a change in the whaling regulations. During the 1973 

 meeting, both Japan and the U.S.S.R. refused to make a final decision 

 to implement an agreement, reached at the 1972 meeting, to enlarge 

 the Secretariat of the IWC and provide it with scientific expertise. 



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