D. Interim Convention on Conservation of North Pacific Fur Seals^ ' 



1. Objectives 



The purpose of the Convention is to achieve: 



the maximum sustainable productivity of the fur seal resources of the North Pacific Ocean so that the 

 fur seal population can be brought to and maintained at the levels which will provide the greatest harvest 

 year after year, with due regard to their relation to the productivity of other living marine resources of 

 the area. ^ ^ 



The States Parties to the Convention are Canada, Japan, the Soviet Union and the United States. 



2. Administrative Organization and Powers 



The Convention requires the State Parties to establish the North Pacific Fur Seal Commission, to be 

 composed of one member from each Party.* ^ The decisions and recommendations of the Commission 

 must be made by unanimous vote, with each Party having one vote.*^ However, with respect to any 

 recommendations regarding the size and the sex and age composition of the seasonal commercial Idll 

 from a herd, only those Parties sharing in the sealskins from that herd are entitled to vote.*^ The 

 Commission elects its chairman from its members.^ ^ 



To attain the Convention's objectives, each State Party agrees to prohibit any person or vessel subject 

 to its jurisdiction from engaging in pelagic seaUng, i.e., the killing, taking or hunting in any manner 

 whatsoever of fur seals at sea, except in specified numbers for research purposes, in the Pacific Ocean 

 north of the 30th parallel of north latitude, including the Seas of Bering, Okhotsk and Japan.*' It also 

 agrees to cooperate in investigating the fur seal resources of the North Pacific Ocean and, particularly, in 

 studying: 



(a) the size of each fur seal herd and its average age and sex compostion; 



(b) the natural mortality of the different age groups and recruitment of young to each age or size class 

 at present and subsequent population levels; 



(c) with regard to each of the herds, the effect upon the magnitude of recruitment of variations in the 

 size and the age and sex compositon of the annual kill; 



8 1 



This Convention was signed at Washington, Feb. 9, 1957 and entered into force for the United States, Oct. 14, 

 1957, 8 U.S.T. 2283, T.I.A.S. No. 3948, 314 U.N.T.S. 105. 



The original Convention was to continue in force for six years, but the Parties agreed to meet early in the sixth year 

 to decide whether it should be continued in force. Convention, Art. XIII (4), Art. XI. This was done and a Protocol 

 eventuated amending the Convention but continuing it for another six years. The Protocol was signed at Washington, 

 Oct. 9, 1963, entered into force for the United States, April 10, 1964. T.I.A.S. No. 5558. The account of the 

 Convention set forth below is based upon its amended provisions. 



^Convention, Preamble. The final clause was added to take account of the possibility that fur seals prey upon 

 salmon, a fish highly valued by all four States Parties. 



*^W., Art. V (1). 



^'^Id.. Art. V(4). 



^^Ibid. 



**W., Art. V(5). 



Id., Art. Ill, Art. I (1). The prohibition against pelagic seaUng does not apply to Indians, Ainos, Aleuts, or Eskimos 

 dweUing on the coast of the waters in question who carry on pelagic sealing in canoes not transported by or used in 

 connection with other vessels, and propelled entirely by oars, paddles, or sails, and manned by not more than five 

 persons each, in the way hitherto practiced and without the use of firearms; provided that such hunters are not in the 

 employment of other persons or under contract to deUver the skins to any person. Id., Art. VII. 



VIII-116 



