The Commission is also given the following enforcement functions: 



(1) To make recommendations to the States Parties regarding the enactment of schedules of equivalent 

 penalties for violations of the Convention. ^ ^ 



(2) To take such steps in agreement with the Parties concerned, as will enable it to determine the extent 

 to which the undertakings agreed to by the Parties in connection with the abstention provisions, and 

 with any other measures recommended by the Commission and accepted by the Parties concerned, have 

 been effective. ' ^ 



(3) To request the States Parties concerned to report regularly the conservation measures adopted from 

 time to time with regard to the stocks of fish subject to abstention whether or not covered by 

 conservation agreements between the Parties and to transmit the information to the other Parties.''^ 



Finally, if it comes to the attention of any of the States Parties that the nationals or fishing vessels of 

 any State wliich is not a Party to the Convention appear to affect adversely the operations of the 

 Commission or the objectives of the Convention, such Party shall call the matter to the attention of the 

 other Parties. All the Parties agree, upon the request of such Party, to confer upon the steps to be taken 

 towards obviating such adverse affects or reUeving any Party from them.'* 



5. Activities 



The Commission has served "as a forum for the discussion of fishery problems of mutual concern, as 

 a Uaison center for the exchange of technical and scientific information, and a panel of experts for the 

 review and coordination of national programs of research on high seas fishery resources."'^ It has been 

 responsible for the design of perhaps the largest single fishery research program undertaken to date. As a 

 result of the research activities of the three States Parties, carried out under the Conunission's aegis, the 

 knowledge of salmon has been increased immeasurably. 



The original Line (roughly 175° west longitude) agreed upon to separate North American salmon 

 stock from Asian salmon stock was declared to be "provisional" in a Protocol to the Convention. The 

 United States maintains that subsequent biological studies reveal that North American salmon, 

 particularly the red salmon from Bristol Bay, range further to the west than the "provisional line" and 

 that substantial numbers migrate out as far as 175° east longitude and thereby are subjected to 

 unwarranted harvest by the Japanese fishing fleet.'* Although the United States requested that the 

 "provisional line" be moved far enough west of its present location to assure the protection of salmon 

 spawned in North American lakes and streams, the line has not been moved. 



In 1962, the Commission decided that the herring stocks off the west coast of the Queen Charlotte 

 Islands and the haUbut stock of the eastern Bering Sea no longer quahfied for abstention. Its 

 recommendation that these stocks be removed from the Annex was accepted by the States Parties. With 

 respect to haUbut and herring, therefore, the abstention doctrine presently appUes to (a) halibut 

 originating along the coast of North America and found in the Convention area off the coast of Canada 

 and the United States, exclusive of the Bering Sea; and (b) herring of Canadian origin found in the 

 Convention area off the coast of Canada, exclusive of the waters of the high seas north of 51° 56' north 



''W., Art. Ill (1) (d). 

 '^M, Art. Ill (2). 

 ''^Id., Art. Ill (1) (c) (iii). 

 ''"id.. Art. VI. 



75 



Statement by United States Senate Commerce Committee Staff on IhfPFC, Treaties and other International 

 Agreements etc., supra note 53, at 90. 



Id. at 91. "During the last nine years it is believed that the Japanese have taken more than 27 million salmon of 

 Bristol Bay origin." /ft/d. 



VIII-114 



