104 



writing the use of FPC in institutional feed- 

 ing programs. 



International Fisheries Management 



Any international legal-political frame- 

 work for exploiting the living resources of 

 the oceans must be judged by the extent to 

 which it achieves the following objectives: 



• It must encourage the development of the 

 ^•ast food reserves of the sea at the lowest 

 possible cost in order to combat world 

 hunger and malnutrition. 



• It must promote the orderly and economi- 

 cally efficient exploitation of these living 

 resources, with adequate regard for their 

 conservation. 



• It must not provoke international conflict 

 but rather contribute positively to inter- 

 national order, welfare, and equity. 



The Commission concludes that the exist- 

 ing framework is seriously deficient when 

 judged by these standards. 



Existing Framework 



Each coastal nation, unless limited by 

 treaty, has the right of permanent, exclusive 

 access to the living resources found in its 

 internal or territorial waters and contiguous 

 fishing zone as recognized in international 

 law. The freedom of all nations to fish on the 

 liigh seas is one of the freedoms specified in 

 the Convention on the High Seas. Xeverthe- 

 less, this freedom is beclouded by the extrav- 

 agant claims made by a few nations with re- 

 spect to tlie breadtli of the territorial sea and 

 the exclusive fisheries zone. It also is limited 

 by bilateral and multilateral treaties and 

 agreements and is restricted by the coastal 

 nation's right of exclusive access to the liv- 

 ing, sedentary species on tlie continental 

 shelf. 



The United States is a party to the world- 

 wide Convention on Fishing and Conserva- 

 tion of the Living Kesources of the High 



Seas and to the following five multilateral 

 fishery agreements which are more limited in 

 scope — the international conventions for 

 the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries, High Seas 

 Fisheries of the North Pacific Ocean, Con- 

 servation and Protection of North Pacific 

 Fur Seals, and Inter-American Tropical 

 Tuna and the International Agreement for 

 Regidation of Whaling. The United States 

 also will be a party to the International Con- 

 vention for the Conservation of Atlantic 

 Tuna, which is expected to come into force 

 before 1970. 



The United States and Canada are also 

 parties to three bilateral conventions — Pres- 

 ervation of the Halibut Fishery of the 

 Northern Pacific Ocean and Bering Sea; 

 Protection, Preservation, and Extension of 

 the Salmon Fishery of the Eraser River Sys- 

 tem; and Great Lakes Fisheries. In addition, 

 the United States has agreements with Japan 

 affecting king crab in the North Pacific and 

 other fisheries in waters adjacent to U.S. 

 coasts; with tlie Soviet Union affecting king 

 crab and other fisheries in the North Pacific 

 and fisheries in the western mid-Atlantic 

 Ocean; and with Mexico on certain fishing 

 matters of common interest. 



The United States also belongs to a number 

 of United Nations organizations, principally 

 the Food and Agriculture Organization and 

 certain of its subsidiary bodies, the Inter- 

 governmental Oceanographic Commission, 

 the U.N. Development Program, and the 

 World Bank, which play an active role in the 

 development of commercial fisheries all over 

 tlie world. 



It is difficult to estimate the value of the 

 U.S. catch of fish and shellfish in areas gov- 

 erned by international fishery conventions 

 to which the United States is a party. But it 

 accounts for an appreciable portion of the 

 value of the total U.S. catch and is growing 



