404 NATIONAL OCEANOGRAPHIC PROGRAM LEGISLATION 



established for this purpose (aside from the whaling commission which has 

 attempted to be worldwide, but which has not worked very well). It only at- 

 tempts, however, to deal with a few of the commercial species in the area, and 

 these are the boreal, not the subtropical or tropical species. 



This treaty grew out of the original thought that if Japanese salmon fisher- 

 men stayed out of the eastern Pacific then the United States and Canada could 

 continue to husband and use the salmon which hatched in their rivers. No sooner 

 had the research under the treaty gotten underway than it was found that salmon 

 from North America went normally and abundantly to the western Pacific to 

 feed, that salmon from Asiatic streams came regularly to the eastern Pacific 

 to feed, and that on these feeding migrations they could be readily caught com- 

 mercially on the high seas. The original basis of thought in the treaty just 

 did not fit the habits of the fish and now the treaty must be rewritten on some 

 other basis, for which a satisfactory rationale is yet to be found. 



In the eastern Pacific the tunas are ignored by the International North Pa- 

 cific Fisheries Commission because they migrate right out of the area into the 

 tropics and on into the Southern Hemisphere. Peru, Chile, and Ecuador have 

 a South Pacific Fisheries Commission which was originally founded to "protect" 

 the sperm whale and tuna from invading foreign fishermen. But the sperm 

 whale ignore the whole thing by wide swinging migrations out of Antarctica, 

 through the area of the South Pacific Fisheries Commission, on out into the cen- 

 tral tropical Pacific, and back down to Antarctica, not spending too much of their 

 life in the area of the South Pacific Commission. The yellowfin tvma migrate 

 north out of the area; the skipjack tuna apparently migrate north and west 

 out of the area. 



In the North Atlantic there is the International Commission for the Northwest 

 Atlantic to the west and the North-East Atlantic Fisheries Commission to tJie 

 east. As in the North Pacific neither of these commissions attempt to deal with 

 the Atlantic fisheries of the low latitudes. Bluefin tuna and fresh water eel are 

 known to cross from one area to the other, and other species will probably be 

 found to do so. The Greenland cod make a greater or lesser contribution to the 

 Icelandic cod stocks with the waxing and waning of current strengths in that 

 .sea area, the periodicity of which is not yet well understood. 



These far-ranging fish simply do not lend themselves to nicely thought-out and 

 compartmentalized governance. The intergovernmental commissions referred 

 to represent preliminary gropings by nations to contend with such problems. 

 Admittedly they are not dealing with these problems satisfactory as yet, but 

 they are the best tools for this work that man has yet been able to devise. 



How does one divide the ocean into regions or areas in which the fisheries can 

 be rationally managed and keep the fish in the region or area where they are 

 to be rationally managed ? 



( 7 ) Tlie far-ranging fishermen 



Of course fishermen ranged widely under sail. Portuguese fishermen were pos- 

 sibly fishing the Grand Banks when Leif Erickson came by, and certainly shortly 

 thereafter. Rather small sailing vessels from New England discovered many of 

 the islands of the central Pacific in their search for whale, and quite literally 

 fished the whole world ocean. Vitus Bering brought his Aleut sea otter hunters 

 from the Aleutian Islands to Sitka in their paddled kayaks, etc. 



But it has been the past 10 years that truly worldwide fisheries have been 

 successfully initiated. It was only 1956 when the first tuna-long liner from Japan 

 came to the Atlantic. Now 170 to 200 long-range long-liners work this ocean out 

 of Japan, and a total of about 700 roam the whole world ocean freely, easily and 

 profitably. Russia has led the way into the world ocean for the European coun- 

 tries and now its vessels fish substantially the whole world ocean. Other Euro- 

 pean countries are now beginning to expand their fisheries geographically. Tai- 

 wan Chinese fish the central Pacific, the Indian Ocean, and occasionally the trop- 

 ical Atlantic. Norwegian fishermen catch porbeagle shark off New Tork, land 

 them in Hamburg for transshipment for the Italian market, and are planning 

 to fish tuna in the Gulf of Aden in the off season, etc. 



The wide-ranging fishermen are no less a problem for students and practitioners 

 of the law of the sea than are the wide-ranging fish, and for much the same 

 reason. If the fishermen of this type are confined to smaller areas their cost per 

 ton of production goes up, they go broke, and the fishery dies. 



Aside from the economic and political stress this would occasion that particular 

 kind of fish would not get fished effectively, and would not produce what it can 

 for the use of man. 



