fishing effort. The existing framework may be 

 criticized because it fails to encourage use of the 

 minimum necessary number of fishing units with 

 the most efficient fishing methods and gear. 



3. Administrative Powers 



a. Conservation Measures Employed The fishery 

 conventions generally seek to attain their conserva- 

 tion objectives by regulations affecting (i) the 

 minimum age and size of recruits to the fish 

 population that may be caught— principally, meas- 

 ures governing gear selectivity, the prohibition of 

 fishing in nursery areas and seasonal closures; and 

 (h) fishing mortahty, including limitations upon 

 the areas in which and the time when fishing may 

 be conducted, the catching power of gear, and the 

 overall catch.' 



In addition, a variety of national catch quota 

 systems are in use by the United States and 

 Canada in the salmon fishery of the Fraser River 

 system; by the United States, Japan and the Soviet 

 Union in the agreements relating to King crab; 

 and, in effect, by the United States, Soviet Union, 

 Canada and Japan in the conservation of North 

 Pacific fur seals. There are also various informal 

 agreements fixing national catch quotas to which 

 the United States is not a party— among the Soviet 

 Union, Japan, and Norway in the regulation of 

 Antarctic whaling, between Japan and the govern- 

 ment of mainland China and among Japan, North 

 Korea and South Korea. 



(i.) Regulations Affecting Minimum Age and Size 

 of Recruits Measures involving mesh size, fish size 

 limits and the prohibition of fishing in nursery 

 areas are intended to allow fish to grow to larger 

 size before capture and thereby to produce an 

 addition to aggregate weight greater than the 

 decrements from increased losses to disease, old 

 age, and predators. If they attain this conservation 

 objective, these measures are also economically 

 efficient because they produce a net addition to 

 sustainable rates of physical output by restrictions 

 that normally result in lower rather than higher 

 costs of operation, pro v/dec? that "the net addition 

 to economic yield is greater than the going rate of 



interest, a condition probably fulfilled in many 

 heavily exploited demersal fisheries."'" 



However, if these measures succeed, they will 

 increase the profitability of the fishery and there- 

 fore intensify fishing effort, with the result that 

 part of all of the potential increase in net 

 economic return will be dissipated in excessive 

 capital and labor inputs.' ' 



(ii.) Regulations Affecting Fishing Mortality 



Closed fishing periods will have little or no effect 

 on fishing mortality except through their impact 

 on economic costs. If for example, the fish are 

 available more or less continuously and if storage 

 and freezing costs are very low, fishing for 

 relatively high-valued species will simply be inten- 

 sified during the open period. In most cases, time 

 closures operate to increase total costs for any 

 given quantity taken, and thus induce a reduction 

 in fishing effort. It is also possible that closed 

 fishing periods, in cases where fish migrate on a 

 regular pattern, become area closures for some of 

 the fleet, and raise the time and distance of travel 

 for others. In either case the operative effect on 

 fishing mortality is through increased costs of 

 production. ' ^ 



If fish are not equally available throughout the 

 year, or if weather conditions make fishing effort 

 more hazardous or more costly during the open 

 season, the desired reduction in mortality can be 

 achieved, but only at the expense of additional 

 cost per unit of catch. 



"In the case of anadromous and some pelagic 

 species, however, properly timed closed fishing 

 periods can be a highly effective and flexible 

 device."'^ But again, to the extent this device 

 succeeds in its conservation objectives, it will 

 encourage more fishing effort than is actually 

 required and produce an uneconomic result.''* 



Id. at 5. In most marine fisheries, however, "size 

 limits are an ineffective protective measure, since the 

 mortality of undersized fish returned to the water is very 

 high."/W<i. This measure is justified primarily as a "useful 

 complement to selectivity controls to ensure greater 

 compliance." Ibid. The prohibition of fishing in nursery 

 areas also complements other measures to restrict capture 

 of immature iish.Ibid. 



u 



9 



The classification is that of Economic Aspects of 

 Fishery Management, at 4. 



Ibid. 

 ^Ibid 

 ^Ibid. 

 '^Id. at 6. 



VlII-48 



