Appendix B The Principal Treaties and Other International Agreements Relating to 

 Fisheries to Which the United States Is a Party 



I. MULTILATERAL AGREEMENTS TO WHICH UNITED STATES IS A PARTY 

 A. The Convention on Fishing and Conservation of the Living Resources of the Sea* 



1 . Objectives 



The Convention declares that all States have (1) the right for their nationals to engage in fishing on 

 the high seas subject to (a) their treaty obligations, (b) the interests and rights of coastal states as 

 provided for in the Convention and (c) the provisions contained in the Convention concerning 

 conservation of the living resources of the high seas; and (2) the duty to adopt, or to cooperate with 

 other States in adopting necessary conservation measures.^ By "conservation of the living resources of 

 the high seas," the Convention means "the aggregate of the measures rendering possible the optimum 

 sustainable yield from those resources so as to secure a maximum supply of food and other marine 

 products."' Conservation programs are to be formulated "with a view to securing in the first place a 

 supply of food for human consumption."'' 



The States Parties to the Convention are: Australia, Cambodia, Colombia, Dominican Republic, 

 Finland, Haiti, Jamaica, Madagascar, Malawi, Malaya, Mexico, Netherlands, Nigeria, Portugal, Senegal, 

 Sierre Leone, South Africa, Switzerland, Trinidad and Tobago, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States, 

 Upper Volta, Venezuela, and Yugoslavia. 



2. Substantive Provisions 



The Convention imposes an obligation upon a State to adopt needed conservation measures in any 

 area of the high seas in which its nationals alone are engaged in fishing.^ If the nationals of two or more 

 States are engaged in fishing the same stock of fish in any area of the high seas, any of the States may 

 request the others to enter into negotiations looking to an agreement on the conservation measures that 

 should be adopted.^ The Convention requires the States to enter into such negotiations and provides 

 that if they do not reach agreement within 12 months, any one of them may invoke the dispute 

 settlement machinery described below.' 



If conservation measures are adopted and, subsequently, the nationals of other States enter the 

 fishery, the other States are obligated to apply the measures, provided they do not discriminate against 

 their nationals.* In the event of a failure to discharge this obligation, any other State in the fishery may 

 invoke the dispute settlement machinery,^ but the conservation measures remain obligatory pending the 

 final decision of the arbitration agency, unless the agency supersedes them in the interim.' ° 



See note 36 to Chapter 3, supra. The United States Senate ratified the Convention on May 26, 1960, subject to the 

 "understanding" that it would not be construed "to impair the applicability of the principle of 'abstention' ..." The 

 Convention became effective for the United States in 1966, TIAS No. 5969. 



Convention, Art. 1. 



^Id.. Art. 2. 



'^Ibid. 



^Id., Art. 3. 

 *W., Art. 4 (1). 

 ''/d, Art. 4 (2). 

 ^Id., Alt. 5 (1). 

 ^Id., Art. 5 (2). 

 ""Ibid 



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