There is no implementing legislation for the Convention.
Text: Complete text.
Japan, People's Republic of China (PRC), Republic of Korea (ROK), Republic of Poland, Russian Federation, and the United States.
Mission/Purpose:
The objectives of the Convention are:
1. to establish an international regime for conservation, management, and optimum utilization of pollock resources in the Convention Area [the high seas area of the Bering Sea beyond the U.S. and Russian 200-mile jurisdictions];
2. to restore and maintain pollock resources in the Bering Sea at levels which will permit their maximum sustainable yield;
3. to cooperate in the gathering and examining of factual information concerning pollock and other living marine resources in the Bering Sea; and
4. to provide, if the Parties agree, a forum in which to consider the establishment of necessary conservation and management measures for other living marine resources in the Convention Areas as may be required in the future.
Organizational Structure:
The Convention does not provide for a commission. It does, however, specify that Parties will convene an Annual Conference and establish a Scientific and Technical (S&T) Committee. The functions of the Annual Conference are, among other things, to establish an annual harvest level for pollock in the Convention Area, establish an annual individual national pollock quota for each Party, adopt appropriate pollock conservation and management measures, establish a Plan of Work for the S&T Committee, and discuss cooperative enforcement measures and receive enforcement reports from each Party. Parties may also use the Annual Conference to determine the scope of any cooperative scientific research on, and conservation and management measures for, living marine resources other than pollock covered by the Convention.
The S&T Committee has the charge to "compile, exchange, and analyze information on fisheries harvests, fish stocks, and other living marine resources covered by this convention in accordance with the Plan of Work established by the Annual Conference, and shall investigate other scientific matters as may be referred to it by the Annual Conference." The S&T Committee also makes recommendations to the Annual Conference regarding the conservation and management of pollock, including the annual harvest level.
Advisory Body:
No formal U.S. advisory body has been legislated for the Convention. However, the Department of State has invited the 12-member "North Pacific and Bering Sea Fisheries Advisory Body," appointed to advise the U.S. Representative to the U.S.-Russia Intergovernmental Consultative Committee (ICC), to serve informally as the advisory body. This group consists of the following individuals:
- The Director of the Department of Fisheries and Wildlife of the State of Washington;
- The Commissioner of the Department of Fish and Game of the State of Alaska;
- Five members appointed by the Secretary of State from a list of 10 nominees provided by the Governor of Alaska; and,
- Five members appointed by the Secretary of State from a list of 10 nominees provided by the Governor of Washington.
Background:
The development in the mid-to-late 1980s of an extensive pollock fishery in the central Bering Sea (donut hole) area of the Aleutian Basin, beyond the U.S. and Russian 200-mile zones, was of great concern to U.S. and Russian fishing interests. The United States closed a domestic fishery as a result of the adverse impact this unregulated fishery, which was being prosecuted mostly by distantwater fishing nations, was having on U.S. pollock stocks. Concern also extended to bycatch problems associated with the fishery.
The donut hole fishery was being conducted by trawl vessels from Japan, the ROK, Poland, the PRC, and the former Soviet Union. Catch data submitted by these countries indicated that annual harvests in the donut area rose to approximately 1.5 million metric tons (mt) in the years leading up to 1989. Largely due to drastic declines in catch and catch-per-unit-effort from 1990, leading to a total catch of under 300,000 mt in 1991 and under 11,000 mt in 1992, the governments involved agreed to a voluntary suspension of fishing in the area for 1993-94. During the 2-year suspension of fishing, an agreed scientific monitoring program was carried out that showed no evidence of the recovery of the resource.
On February 11, 1994, the Parties completed 3 years of negotiations and initialled the Convention on the Conservation and Management of Pollock Resources in the Central Bering Sea. Its major principles include: no fishing permitted in the donut hole unless the biomass of the Aleutian Basin stock exceeds a threshold of 1.67 million metric tons (if the parties cannot agree on an estimate of the biomass, the estimate of the Alaska Fisheries Science Center and its Russian counterpart will be used); allocation procedures; 100 percent observer and satellite transmitter coverage; and prior notification of entry into the donut hole and of transshipment activities.
On June 16, 1994, the Convention was signed by the People's Republic of China, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation, and the United States. Japan and Poland signed it on August 4, 1994, and August 25, 1994, respectively. The Convention entered into force on December 8, 1995, for Russia, Poland, the PRC, and the United States, December 21, 1995, for Japan, and January 4, 1996, for the ROK.
Current Status
Representatives of the United States, Russia, Japan, the Republic of Korea, the People's Republic of China, and Poland met in Seattle, Washington, on October 5-7, 1997, for the Second Annual Conference of the Parties to the Convention on the Conservation and Management of Pollock Resources in the Central Bering Sea (the "Donut Hole"). The Conference was chaired by Mr. Richard Lauber, Chair of the North Pacific Fishery Management Council, and the U.S. delegation was led by Mr. Steven Pennoyer, Alaska Regional Administrator, National Marine Fisheries Service.
Allowable Harvest Level (AHL): The Parties established the AHL in the Central Bering Sea at zero for 1998. All Parties agreed with the Science and Technical Committee's conclusions that there was insufficient data to estimate the Aleutian Basin pollock biomass directly. The best available information to estimate this biomass indirectly came from the U.S. research vessel MILLER FREEMAN survey of the pollock spawning stock biomass in the Bogoslof Island area in March 1997. This estimate was 342,000 metric tons - about 50 percent lower than last years estimate (when the Parties set the AHL at zero) and the lowest biomass on record for this area. Part 1(b) of the Annex to the Convention states that if the Parties are not able to reach consensus on the Aleutian Basin pollock biomass, the Bogoslof Island area biomass will represent 60 percent of the total Aleutian Basin biomass. With this in mind, the biomass in the entire Aleutian Basin would be estimated at 572,000 metric tons. This number is far below the 1.67 million metric-ton threshold (Part 1(c) of the Annex) that would trigger a commercial fishery. In addition, all trial fishing results in 1997 showed little or no fish in the Central Bering Sea.
Because the 1998 AHL is zero, no individual national quotas were established.
The Establishment of the Terms and Conditions for Trial Fishing in 1998: Although there will be no commercial pollock harvest in the central Bering Sea in 1998, trial fishing for pollock will be permitted. The Annual Conference adopted measures governing trial fishing similar to those employed in previous years. Included are provisions that no more than two vessels from each Party to the Convention at any time may conduct trial fishing for pollock, information on the vessels that will engage in the trial fishing will be provided to all Parties in advance of fishing operations, and vessels engaged in trial fishing will have scientific observers of the flag-State on board and will accept at least one scientific observer of other Parties to the Convention in accordance with arrangements to be made between the flag-State of the vessel and the other Parties.
Central Bering Sea Management System: The parties made significant progress toward establishing a management system for the central Bering Sea. The United States provided the Parties with a management system proposal. The Parties agreed to submit via diplomatic channels written comments on the proposal by June 1, 1998.
The Parties also adopted a central Bering Sea observer program. All vessels will carry observers when commercial fishing is eventually resumed in the Convention Area.
Plan of Work for the Scientific and Technical Committee: The main elements of the Committee's Work Plan for 1998 consist of (1) a pollock age determination workshop to be held in Seattle during March 1998; (2) a pollock symposium in Russia in May-June 1998; (3) the March 1998 U.S. Bogoslof Island area pollock survey; (4) a Russian hydroacoustic and ichthyoplankton survey during summer 1998; and (5) an intersessional Scientific and Technical Committee meeting approximately two months prior to the Third Annual Conference.
Third Annual Conference: Japan will host the Third Annual Conference in Tokyo in October or November 1998. Mr. Kyoichi Kawaguchi will chair the Conference. Korea will host the Fourth Annual Conference in 1999.
| National Marine Fisheries Service | Department of State |
|---|---|
Paul E. Niemeier NOAA Alaska Region |
H. Stetson Tinkham |
143. The adoption on 11 February 1994 of the Convention on the Conservation and Management of Pollock Resources in the Central Bering Sea by China, Japan, Poland, the Republic of Korea, the Russian Federation and the United States89 strengthens the new trend set by the FAO Compliance Agreement that requires flag States to assume greater responsibility for the control of their vessels while engaged in high seas fishing.
144. The Convention provides that each party "shall take all necessary measures", including, inter alia, those to ensure that fishing vessels fish only in the Convention area pursuant to specific authorization issued by the flag State, and to ensure that fishing operations undertaken by vessels flying its flag in violation of the provisions of the Convention would constitute an offence under its national legislation.90
145. As part of control and surveillance measures, the Parties are under the obligation to require their fishing vessels fishing for pollock to use satellite position-fixing transmitters, to accept non-flag State party observers on their fishing vessels, to make prior notification of their entry into the Convention area and to notify the other Parties in advance of the location of any transshipments of fish and fish products.91
146. The Convention also requires the Parties to take measures to prevent fishing vessels flying their flags from transferring their registration for the purpose of avoiding compliance with the conservation and management regime established in the Convention.92
147. In addition to obligations related to the exchange of information and catch data on a regular basis, the Convention incorporates innovative enforcement measures such as the boarding and inspection of a fishing vessel of a flag State party by another flag State party.93 It further invites Parties to take measures "they deem necessary and appropriate" to deter fishing operations of non-Parties which could adversely affect the objectives of the Convention.94
89 All these States had signed the Convention as of 31 August 1994. The Convention will enter into force 30 days after the Russian Federation, the United States and at least two other signatories have ratified it.
90 Convention on the Conservation and Management of Pollock Resources in the Central Bering Sea, art. XI, paras. 1 and 2.
91 Ibid., art. XI, paras. 3 and 5.
92 Ibid., art. XII, para. 4.
93 Ibid., art. XI, paras. 4 and 6.
94 Ibid., art. XII, paras. 3 and 4.
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