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sible the optimum sustainable yield from those resources so as to secure a maxi- 
mum supply of food and other marine products. Conservation programmes should 
be formulated with a view to securing in the first place a supply of food for human 
consumption”. 
The word optimum in Article 2 is the oblique bow in the direction of maximiz- 
ing net economic yield. While it is not yet possible to get nations to work jointly 
even closely in the direction of maximizing net economic yield from the use of 
common property living resources, these same economic problems also lie at the 
root of the difficulty of getting them to follow in practice the high resolve of 
paragraph 2 in Article 1 (cited above), by the criteria agreed to in Article 2. 
rogress in this is far slower than the rate of development of fishing effort in 
the high seas. 
A sensible compromise would be to divide up the quota that is the result of 
maximizing the sustainable yield when the resource and fishery on it come to 
that balance among the nations on the basis of proportions then existing, with 
a portion set aside for new entrants and annual adjustments among the partic- 
ipants. Then each participating sovereign could maximize his net economic re- 
turn from his part of the quota in any manner most suitable to his socio-economic 
needs ‘and desires. There is no indication that such a formulation, or any other, 
is being seriously considered by the soverign owners of the common property liv- 
ing resources of the sea, who seem to prefer a laisser-faire approach to the 
problem. 
D. Domestic concepts of the use of common property fishery resources in the 
United States. 
The United States has an enviable reputation for promoting the conservation 
of common property fishery resources in the international common of the high 
seas stemming from sixty years and more of practice. It is bound by the concepts 
noted in the section above in its actions, in the international field as adherrent to 
the conventions in which they occur. It has, however, additional concepts to give 
attention to in the management of the use of marine living resources within its 
sole jurisdiction. These grow out of demands related to multiple use of the same 
resource, or related resources, by different sectors of United States society. The 
above noted concepts are not disagreed to by any of these internal sectors but 
they do not go far enough to suit some. 
Recreation is a principal other user of marine living resources in the United 
States aside from commercial fishing. In the United States the economic interests 
involved in the recreational use of the near coast resources is not less than the 
commercial interest, and the social interest is enormous. Furthermore it grows as 
the population grows and becomes more congested in metropolitan aggregations 
along the coast. The “party boat” industry that caters to taking sport fishermen 
to sea for fishing is a large business in itself. 
Associated with the recreational users often, but of quite a different nature, are 
the conservationists and nature lovers who do not necessarily wish to catch 
fish or dig clams, or use any of these resources in an extractive manner. They 
are interested in knowing that the natural habitat in which they live is being 
preserved as intact as possible without extractive use, or if the latter is neces- 
sary that the extraction be done wisely in the interests of preserving the ecologi- 
cal balance of nature as well as possible. Among these are those who just like to 
watch nature and to them seals, sea-lions, sea-otters, porpoise, whales and the 
like have an especial attraction. Providing services for whale watching in season 
in southern California, for instance, is a considerable economic enterprise, and a 
drawing card for the lucrative tourist trade. 
Also there are the educational users who wish to have segments of coastal 
flora and fauna preserved as nearly intact as possible in natural reserves under 
their jurisdiction to be used for teaching, research and other educational pur- 
poses. In case this is not thought to be a problem it can be noted that the Cali- 
fornia State Lands Commission, which has jurisdiction over the use of tidelands 
in that state, has before it more formal application from such educational in- 
stitutions for such natural preserves in southern California than there is coast- 
line from Point Conception to the Mexican border. The requests overlap and in 
some instances nearly duplicate. 
Most of these non-commercial users of these resources would prefer that they 
not be used commercially at all, and some sportsman’s groups wish actively to 
do away completely with all commercial fishing. The destruction of the Pacific 
sardine population, the decimation of the Pacific mackerel population, and the 
oncoming decline of the menhaden are cited as examples of destruction of re- 
sources by un-principled commercial interests. 
