U.S./U.S.S.R. COOPERATION IN FISHERIES 
(By Lorry M. Nakatsu ') 
Cooperation in fisheries between the United States and the Soviet 
Union has its genesis essentially in the desire of both countries to 
seek solutions arising as a result of conflicts of interest over the 
utilization of the ocean’s marine resources off the U.S. coast in inter- 
national waters. These conflicts have included: Competition for the 
same resources, many of which have been traditionally utilized by 
U.S. coastal fishermen; preemption by the large, mobile Soviet fleets 
of fishing grounds usually fished by U.S. fishermen; gear conflicts 
between mobile Soviet trawl gear and U.S. fixed gear (such as crab 
and lobster pots), resulting in some cases in severe economic losses 
to U.S. fishermen. Of paramount concern to the United States has 
been the rapid expansion of Soviet fishing operations off both coasts 
of the United States, the severe stress placed on U.S. coastal resources, 
in many cases leading to over-fishing, and the tactics employed by 
the Soviet and other foreign fleets of “‘pulse-fishing”’ that is the prac- 
tice of concentrating on one or more species and after having fished 
those species to low levels, of targeting on other more abundant 
species and continuing to repeat this cycle. An illustrative example 
is the Northwest Atlantic fisheries for haddock, red and silver hake, 
herring and mackerel. The Soviets initially targeted on the haddock 
and red and silver hake, then as those resources were depleted or 
fished to very low levels, switched to herring and thence targeted 
on mackerel. All of these species have been badly overfished and 
the fisheries for these species are now being strictly regulated to 
prevent further depletion and to help rebuild the stocks. 
The conflicts and problems described above should clearly not be 
attributed or blamed solely only to the activities of the Soviet fleet; 
they represent the cumulative problems caused by the rapid expansion 
of fishing operations off the U.S. coast conducted by many countries, 
totaling about 20 at the present time, and the inability of those coun- 
tries to agree to take meaningful conservation measures rapidly, at 
least until fairly recently, until it was too late in some cases, and 
almost too late in many others. 
The massive foreign operations off the U.S. coast began in the 
1960’s and reflected part of the world expansion in fisheries in every 
ocean to increase food production and to expand trade. Japan and 
the Soviet Union have led this expansion and they still constitute 
today the two nations with the largest number of fishing vessels off 
the U.S. coast. It is only natural for the United States to have focused 
its primary attention on seeking to control their fisheries, either 
through bilateral or multilateral arrangements. 
'The author is on the staff of the Department of State. 
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