the United Nations General Assembly, should be 

 amended to declare that no State may claim or 

 exercise sovereignty or sovereign rights over any 

 area of the sea-bed or subsoil beyond the 200 

 meter isobath. 



III. OTHER STEPS TO BE TAKEN PENDING 

 NEGOTIATION OF NEW FRAMEWORK 



a. The United States should announce that it 

 will continue to lease rights to explore and exploit 

 the mineral resources of the bed or subsoil 

 underlying the high seas beyond the 200 meter 

 isobath, subject to any new, international legal- 

 poUtical framework. 



b. To encourage private investment enterprise 

 in such exploration and exploitation, the United 

 States should enact legislation to compensate 

 private enterprise for loss of investment or ex- 

 penses that may be occasioned by the fact that the 

 international legal-poUtical framework ultimately 

 adopted puts the area in which it was previously 

 engaged in exploration or exploitation of mineral 

 resources beyond the outer limits of the redefined 

 continental shelf. 



c. The Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act 

 should be amended to require permission from the 

 Secretary of the Interior to engage in mineral 

 resources exploration or exploitation in any subsea 

 area beyond the 200-meter isobath upon such 

 terms and conditions as the Secretary deems 

 appropriate. 



IV. AN INTERNATIONAL LEGAL-POLITICAL 

 FRAMEWORK FOR EXPLOITING THE 

 LIVING RESOURCES OF THE HIGH SEAS 



A. The United States should seek the agreement 

 of the nations which are parties to the Inter- 

 national Convention for the Northwest Atlantic 

 Fisheries to cooperate with the States Parties to 

 the Northeast Atlantic Fisheries Convention in 

 setting a single annual overall catch limit and single 

 annual national catch quotas for the cod and 

 haddock fisheries of the North Atlantic. 



B. Early consideration should be given to insti- 

 tuting a national catch quota system in the high 

 seas fisheries of the North Pacific Ocean as well. 



C. Whenever a national catch quota system is 

 adopted for fisheries in which it participates, the 



United States should adopt domestic policies 

 aimed at restricting its effort in the fisheries in 

 question to the minimum number of fishing units, 

 each of maximum efficiency, required to catch its 

 quota over a prolonged period of time. These 

 policies should seek to achieve this aim gradually 

 and provision should be made for any fishermen 

 displaced by them. 



D. Existing international fishery conventions 

 should be strengthened in the following ways: 



1. The geographical area of each convention 

 should be large enough to permit fishery manage- 

 ment on the basis of ecological units rather than 

 species and, when necessary, to cover the territo- 

 rial seas. 



2. All nations participating in the fisheries 

 should become parties to the Convention appli- 

 cable thereto. 



3. All important fishing nations of the world 

 should adhere to the Convention on Fishing and 

 Conservation of the Living Resources of the Sea. 



4. Nations which are important in processing 

 or consuming fish should be eligible to become 

 parties to the Convention in which they are 

 interested. 



5. Fishery commissions created by fishery con- 

 ventions should be adequately financed and pro- 

 vided with full-time staffs to furnish the scientific, 

 technical and economic advice they need to 

 accomplish convention objectives, particularly 

 if some member States lack such personnel or the 

 resources to employ them. 



6. Enforcement of the convention's provisions 

 and the commission's implementing regulations 

 should be made more effective. 



7. Dispute-settlement procedures should be 

 agreed upon which will make the decisions of an 

 impartial tribunal obligatory upon the States 

 Parties to the dispute. 



E. An international organization-probably the 

 Committee on Fisheries of the United Nations 

 Food and Agriculture Organization-should be 

 given the responsibility (a) to recommend the 

 establishment of new, international fishery con- 

 ventions; and (b) to evaluate the operations of 

 existing conventions and to recommend measures 

 to improve the work of each convention, as well as 

 to coordinate the activities of all them; with the 

 aim of creating a world-wide system of regional 

 fishery conventions capable of assuring the con- 



VIIl-7 



333-092 0-69— 18 



