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Mediterranean clean-up
Marine Pollution Bullelgn
Tuna Boycott The Sierra Club announced on 10 December that it will support a boycott of light meat tuna until porpoise mortality is significantly reduced. One of the goals of the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 is to reduce mammal mortality incidental to commercial fishing operations to 'insignificant levels approaching zero'. The main obstacle to achieving this goal is the 'purse-seine' method of fishing for yellowf'm tuna. Porpoise are often trapped in purse-seine nets and drown or die from injury during the netting process. Although the Act provides for the issue of a permit allowing a certain amount of marine mammal mortality incidental to fishing operations, there is also the stipulation that both the regulations and permit will be changed ff new evidence is presented. A Marine Mammal Commission scientific advisory committee has now presented a report which indicates that even the most conservative estimates of porpoise mortality represent an unacceptably high level. Estimates on porpoise mortality in recent years range from 100,000---400,000 animals killed annually. The committee has advised that mortality must be reduced significantly to ensure the safety of the basic porpoise stocks. At NOAA hearings held on 10 December to consider revision of the regulations, the National Marine Fisheries Service proposed two new measures designed to reduce further porpoise mortality: ( 1 ) t o require training sessions for all commercial fishermen holding permits who use purse-seine nets, to ensure that they are personally aware of the provisions of the Act and methods they must use to protect marine mammals; and (2) to require fishermen to use an additional rescue techxtique to free entrapped porpoises. Another hearing is scheduled for 3 months before the current permit expires in December 1975 to consider new data.
200-mile Fishing Zone for U.S. The Magnuson 200-mile Fisheries Bill would extend United States jurisdiction over fLsheries out to 200 miles. Although its purpose to conserve coastal and anadromous f'~a stocks is well taken, its effectiveness is questionable. Under international law the U.S. enjoys no unilateral right to extend its fisheries zone to 200 miles; in fact, the International Court of Justice recently held that Iceland's 50-mile fishery zone extension violated the legal rights of the United Kingdom and the Federal Republic of Germany. If other nations are not bound to recognize a unilaterally declared fishery zone, there is nothing to stop Russian, Japanese and other foreign fishermen from continuing to fish in the waters beyond the U.S. present 12-mile contiguous fLshery zone. The Coast Guard would be hard put to patrol the additional 2,222,000 square miles and even the excessive financial costs of enforcement without international recognition and acceptance of U.S. jurisdiction would be secondary compared to the confrontation potential of such actions. As John Norton Moore, U.S. Law of the Sea Task Force Chairman, stated in the New York Times last September: 'Passage of the b i l l . . , could generate a wave of competing claims to the oceans, irreparably damaging the chances for a comprehensive trea,'cy. Passage would also be very, costly for 38
the nation's oceans and foreign relations interests. Moreover, rather than resolving our f'tsheries problems, passage would merely trigger an ineffectual round of diplomatic exchanges.' The Bill was adversely reported by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in September and was claimed by the Senate Armed Services Committee for consideration until after the election recess. A number of environmentalists have expressed concern that the Bill can be detrimental to the conservation and protection of living ocean resources and inconsistent with international efforts to secure proper conservation and environmental management of the oceans and their resources. Alternative arrangements consistent with present international law are now being sought. The U.S. Government has recently promulgated new regulations which substantially tighten control over the incidental catch of living resources from the U.S. continental shelf. Further measures might be taken under the 1958 Convention on Fisheries and the Conservation of Living Resources of the High Seas as proposed in H.R. 15619, the Sullivan-Dingell Bill. Article 7 of the 1958 Convention authorizes the adoption of appropriate conservation measures for any stock of fish or other living marine resources of the high seas and for the coastal and anadromous species of fish in the sea adjacent to the 12-mile fisheries zone of the U.S. thxough negotiations with other nations. If no agreement' has been reached within 6 months, the U.S. is empowered to take necessary unilateral action. The Office of International Affairs of the Sierra Club regards the Sullivan-Dingeli legislation as based upon sound environmental principles. It recognizes that multilateral negotiations are necessary to promote such principles. The legislation also recognizes that traditional territorial concepts of the exercise of juridiction are incompatible with the highly fragile and migratory nature of the oceans' living resources and their necessary environmental protection.
Mediterranean Clean-up As an enclosed (if large) sea, the Mediterranean needs treating with care, though few if any of the countries bordering it act as though they believed this, and it has the unenviable reputation, of being one of the world's most polluted seas. It has been singled out by the United Nations for :pecial 'regional' attention and a conference was held in Barcelona under U.N. sponsorship last month to start the talking if not the action. One of the major hurdles to progress, apart from sheer inertia, is the politically unsettled state of the Mediterranean area. It is something of a triumph therefore that Israel and seven Arab states have sent delegates to the conference, along with representatives of the ten European countries. The United States, Soviet Union and United Kingdom were invited to send observers. That the first, though by no means the only hurdle to jump before much else could happen was stressed by Sefior Joaquin Gutierrez Can6, the Spanish Minister for Economic Development, who opened the conference. He appealed to fellow delegates to forget political differences and join forces. Even if that much is achieved, only an optimist would expect very rapid progress in the clean-ut~ itself.
Tuna Boycott The Sierra Club announced on 10 December that it will support a boycott of light meat tuna until porpoise mortality is significantly reduced. One of the goals of the U.S. Marine Mammal Protection Act of 1972 is to reduce mammal mortality incidental to commercial fishing operations to 'insignificant levels approaching zero'. The main obstacle to achieving this goal is the 'purse-seine' method of fishing for yellowf'm tuna. Porpoise are often trapped in purse-seine nets and drown or die from injury during the netting process. Although the Act provides for the issue of a permit allowing a certain amount of marine mammal mortality incidental to fishing operations, there is also the stipulation that both the regulations and permit will be changed ff new evidence is presented. A Marine Mammal Commission scientific advisory committee has now presented a report which indicates that even the most conservative estimates of porpoise mortality represent an unacceptably high level. Estimates on porpoise mortality in recent years range from 100,000---400,000 animals killed annually. The committee has advised that mortality must be reduced significantly to ensure the safety of the basic porpoise stocks. At NOAA hearings held on 10 December to consider revision of the regulations, the National Marine Fisheries Service proposed two new measures designed to reduce further porpoise mortality: ( 1 ) t o require training sessions for all commercial fishermen holding permits who use purse-seine nets, to ensure that they are personally aware of the provisions of the Act and methods they must use to protect marine mammals; and (2) to require fishermen to use an additional rescue techxtique to free entrapped porpoises. Another hearing is scheduled for 3 months before the current permit expires in December 1975 to consider new data.
200-mile Fishing Zone for U.S. The Magnuson 200-mile Fisheries Bill would extend United States jurisdiction over fLsheries out to 200 miles. Although its purpose to conserve coastal and anadromous f'~a stocks is well taken, its effectiveness is questionable. Under international law the U.S. enjoys no unilateral right to extend its fisheries zone to 200 miles; in fact, the International Court of Justice recently held that Iceland's 50-mile fishery zone extension violated the legal rights of the United Kingdom and the Federal Republic of Germany. If other nations are not bound to recognize a unilaterally declared fishery zone, there is nothing to stop Russian, Japanese and other foreign fishermen from continuing to fish in the waters beyond the U.S. present 12-mile contiguous fLshery zone. The Coast Guard would be hard put to patrol the additional 2,222,000 square miles and even the excessive financial costs of enforcement without international recognition and acceptance of U.S. jurisdiction would be secondary compared to the confrontation potential of such actions. As John Norton Moore, U.S. Law of the Sea Task Force Chairman, stated in the New York Times last September: 'Passage of the b i l l . . , could generate a wave of competing claims to the oceans, irreparably damaging the chances for a comprehensive trea,'cy. Passage would also be very, costly for 38
the nation's oceans and foreign relations interests. Moreover, rather than resolving our f'tsheries problems, passage would merely trigger an ineffectual round of diplomatic exchanges.' The Bill was adversely reported by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee in September and was claimed by the Senate Armed Services Committee for consideration until after the election recess. A number of environmentalists have expressed concern that the Bill can be detrimental to the conservation and protection of living ocean resources and inconsistent with international efforts to secure proper conservation and environmental management of the oceans and their resources. Alternative arrangements consistent with present international law are now being sought. The U.S. Government has recently promulgated new regulations which substantially tighten control over the incidental catch of living resources from the U.S. continental shelf. Further measures might be taken under the 1958 Convention on Fisheries and the Conservation of Living Resources of the High Seas as proposed in H.R. 15619, the Sullivan-Dingell Bill. Article 7 of the 1958 Convention authorizes the adoption of appropriate conservation measures for any stock of fish or other living marine resources of the high seas and for the coastal and anadromous species of fish in the sea adjacent to the 12-mile fisheries zone of the U.S. thxough negotiations with other nations. If no agreement' has been reached within 6 months, the U.S. is empowered to take necessary unilateral action. The Office of International Affairs of the Sierra Club regards the Sullivan-Dingeli legislation as based upon sound environmental principles. It recognizes that multilateral negotiations are necessary to promote such principles. The legislation also recognizes that traditional territorial concepts of the exercise of juridiction are incompatible with the highly fragile and migratory nature of the oceans' living resources and their necessary environmental protection.
Mediterranean Clean-up As an enclosed (if large) sea, the Mediterranean needs treating with care, though few if any of the countries bordering it act as though they believed this, and it has the unenviable reputation, of being one of the world's most polluted seas. It has been singled out by the United Nations for :pecial 'regional' attention and a conference was held in Barcelona under U.N. sponsorship last month to start the talking if not the action. One of the major hurdles to progress, apart from sheer inertia, is the politically unsettled state of the Mediterranean area. It is something of a triumph therefore that Israel and seven Arab states have sent delegates to the conference, along with representatives of the ten European countries. The United States, Soviet Union and United Kingdom were invited to send observers. That the first, though by no means the only hurdle to jump before much else could happen was stressed by Sefior Joaquin Gutierrez Can6, the Spanish Minister for Economic Development, who opened the conference. He appealed to fellow delegates to forget political differences and join forces. Even if that much is achieved, only an optimist would expect very rapid progress in the clean-ut~ itself.