464 
SOVIET FISHERIES OFF U.S. PACIFIC COAST 
Soviet fishing off our Pacific coast began in 1959 with the initiation 
of fisheries for groundfish and king crab in the eastern Bering Sea. 
In the middle 1960’s the Soviets expanded their operations southward 
and began a large fishery for hake off Washington and Oregon. In 
the process of this southward expansion, the Soviets depleted the 
Pacific Ocean perch resources off the Pacific Northwest. This finfish, 
a species much sought by U.S. fishermen and which at one time 
constituted an important fishery, continues to remain in depleted con- 
dition today despite conservation measures implemented by the United 
States to protect it. Hake on the other hand is a species which is 
not of any significant economic importance to the U.S. commercial 
fishery at the present time but does represent a resource of potential 
commercial importance to U.S. fishermen in the near future. On the 
other hand, hake, along with pollock in the eastern Bering Sea con- 
stitute the two most important commercial species for the Soviet 
Union. 
PACIFIC COAST BILATERAL AGREEMENTS WITH THE SOVIET UNION 
The problems associated with the Soviet fisheries in the 1960’s 
have been difficult to resolve since they were occurring on the high 
seas (beyond 3 miles) and Soviet operations were being conducted 
under generally accepted principles related to freedom of fishing on 
the high seas and subject only to the general principles of conservation 
and obligations associated with such fishing of paying reasonable re- 
gard to the concerns of U.S. coastal fisheries. To insure the conserva- 
tion of the fisheries resources off our Pacific coast and to protect 
the economic interests of U.S. fishermen, including access to grounds 
on the high seas which they have traditionally fished, and to minimize 
losses to U.S. fishermen caused by the damage to their fishing gear 
by foreign mobile gear, the United States negotiated three agreements 
with the Soviet Union in the 1960’s. 
They are the: (1) Agreement between the United States of America 
and the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics on fishing operations 
in the northeastern Pacific Ocean, commonly referred to as the 
‘““Kodiak Gear Agreement,” signed December 14, 1964; 
(2) Agreement between the United States of America and the Union 
of Soviet Socialist Republics of fisheries for King Crab, commonly 
referred to as the ‘““Crab Agreement,” signed February 5, 1965; and 
(3) Agreement between the United States of America and the Union 
of Soviet Socialist Republics on fisheries in the northeastern part 
of the Pacific Ocean off the United States coast, once referred to 
as the “Contiguous Fishery Zone Agreement” and now usually 
described as the ‘‘Northeast Pacific Fisheries Agreement,” signed 
February 13, 1967. 
KODIAK GEAR AGREEMENT 
In 1964 the first bilateral agreement with the Soviet Union was 
concluded relating to Soviet fishing operations near Kodiak Island 
in the Gulf of Alaska. The agreement was concluded to minimize 
gear losses and damages to U.S. king crab fixed pot gear caused 
