1998 Year of the Ocean A Survey of International Agreements 



The International Hydrographic Organization is organized in two parts. The Conference, 

 composed of representatives of all member states, meets every five years. In the intersessional 

 period, the scientific and technical business of the organization is conducted by the Bureau, 

 composed of an elected Directing Committee and the Secretariat staff. Dues for the member 

 states are assessed according to the tonnage of their fleets. 



LIVING MARINE RESOURCES 



International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling, 1948 



The International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling, drafted in 1946 after a 

 conference hosted by the United States, was subsequently ratified and entered into force in 1948. 

 This Convention was the culmination of a series of agreements begun in the 1920s, the purpose 

 of which was to establish a system of international regulation for whaling in order to ensure the 

 conservation and development of whale stocks, and to make possible the orderly development of 

 the whaling industry. The Convention created the International Whaling Commission, the 

 organization that is internationally recognized as having authority over the conservation and 

 management of whale stocks worldwide. In 1982, the International Whaling Commission 

 adopted a commercial whaling moratorium, which took effect in 1986 and remains in place. 



Convention Between the United States of America and the Republic of Costa Rica for the 



Establishment of an Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission, 1949; 



Tuna Conventions Act of 1950 (64 Stat. 777), as amended (16 U.S.C. 951-961) 



The Agreement established the Inter- American Tropical Tuna Commission, to "(1) study 

 the biology of the tunas and related species of the eastern Pacific Ocean with a view to 

 determining the effects that fishing and natural factors have on their abundance and (2) to 

 recommend appropriate conservation measures so that the stocks of fish can be maintained at 

 levels which will afford maximum sustainable catches." The nations who are party to this 

 agreement are: Costa Rica. Ecuador, France, Japan, Nicaragua, Panama, the United States, 

 Vanuatu, and Venezuela. 



The Commission's duties were broadened in 1976 to include work on the problems 

 arising from the tuna-dolphin relationship in the eastern Pacific Ocean. The International 

 Dolphin Conservation Program, which was developed by the Inter-American Tropical Tuna 

 Commission, has drastically reduced the dolphin mortality in purse seine tuna fisheries, where 

 the dolphin bycatch rate had been traditionally high. In 1992, ten nations with tuna vessels 

 operating in the eastern Pacific Ocean entered into the La Jolla Agreement, which committed 

 them to reduce dolphin mortality to insignificant levels, with a goal of eliminating it entirely 

 through the application of ecologically sound fishing methods. This Agreement established an 

 annually decreasing limit on the total allowable dolphin mortality in the fishery to a level of less 

 than 5,000 in 1999. The International Dolphin Conservation Program has already achieved that 

 mark, well ahead of schedule. 



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