The Problem of the Conservation of Salmon with Special Reference to Bristol Bay, Alaska

Abstract

FISH is one of man's oldest foods, and on the high seas has been reaped without sowing through the ages by man. Traditionally, in the absence of mutual agreements between states, regulations of one nation apply only to nationals of that nation on the high seas. During the last century there has been an acceleration in exploitation by expansion of frontiers, technical progress, accumulation of capital, and increases in population and spending power. The old belief in the renewed and inexhaustible supply of fish has been proved fallacious. Hence, according to dominant interest, three concepts of the high seas and their resources have grown up: (1) that they are not subject to the sole jurisdiction of any state, (2) that fish are not property until caught, and (3) that there should be a development of customary rules of international law for the conservation of the resources of the sea. As the interests of the United States have been confined mainly to fisheries adjacent to her own coast, a domestic policy of conservation has been adopted. The implementation of this policy is complicated, however, by the fact that other states, traditionally more oriented to high-seas fishing, such as Japan, hold to the concept of the freedom of the seas and of their resources. The question of competing national interests therefore arises. This underlines the basic difference between a policy which aims to conserve a resource located completely within the jurisdiction of the national state and one which is not under sole