34 PROBLEMS IN WILD LIFE CONSERVATION 



power. It has already been pointed out that the expressed 

 powers under which the national government carries on 

 conservation activities are four: the power to (i) make 

 treaties; (2) regulate interstate and foreign commerce; 

 (3) administer the territory and other property of the 

 United States, and (4) raise money by taxation which is to 

 be spent for the general welfare. But one might well ask 

 specifically: what does the national government do with 

 regard to wild life conservation under each of these powers? 



Conservation Activities of the National Government 

 under Treaty-Making Power: The conservation of animals 

 ferae naturae on the high seas, depending as it does upon 

 cooperation between nations through international agree- 

 ments, is clearly outside the power of the state governments. 

 The national government, however, under the treaty- 

 making clause of the constitution can by means of unilateral 

 and multilateral agreements with the governments of other 

 nations take steps to prevent needless destruction of wild 

 v life on the high seas. 



Such action has been taken to protect the fur seal fisheries 

 on the Pacific Northwest and Alaskan coasts; the North 

 Atlantic fisheries, and the Northern Pacific halibut fish- 

 eries. 7 The United States also entered into a treaty with 



7 Fur seals see North Pacific Sealing Convention, Senate Doc. 75, 62nd 

 Cong, ist Sess., for history of movement leading to convention see Moore, 

 John B., Digest of International Law, vol. i, p. 900; for history of North 

 Atlantic fisheries dispute see Dunning, Wm., The British Empire and the 

 United States, N. Y. (1914) ; Sabine, Lorenzo, Report on the Principal 

 Fisheries of the American Seas, included as part of the annual report of 

 the Secretary of the Treasury (1852), and Lansing, Robert, "North 

 Atlantic Coast Fisheries Arbitration," Journal of International Law, vol. 

 v, p. i ; for Northern Pacific Halibut fisheries negotiation see Hearings 

 on Northern Pacific Halibut Fishery, Committee on Merchant Marine, 

 Radio, and Fisheries, H. R. 8084, Feb. 8, 1932, p. 18, for the convention 

 itself see Treaty Series, No. 701, Govt. Print., statute enforcing, 43 Stat. 

 L. 649, as amended, 47 Stat. L. 142. 



