Contact: Gordon Helm                           FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
                                               10/26/98

The United States, a leading country in shaping the future of world fisheries, is calling for global agreement to adopt strong, meaningful plans of action to reduce fishing fleet capacity and seabird bycatch, and to take effective steps to manage world shark populations by the end of the year 2000, the Department of Commerce's National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced today.

Terry Garcia, assistant secretary of Commerce for oceans and atmosphere and the chief U.S. fisheries negotiator, believes the Food and Agriculture Organization will forward effective plans of action to its members following the week-long meeting that began today in Rome.

"Many of the world's commercial fish species are overfished, and the chief culprit is too many fishermen chasing too few fish," said Garcia. Garcia is chief U.S. negotiator at the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization Consultation on the Management of Fishing Capacity, Shark Fisheries, and Incidental Catch of Seabirds in Longline Fisheries. "If adopted, the FAO plans of action will include means and a time frame for reducing seabird mortality in longline fisheries, conserving and managing sharks, and reducing harvesting capacity in world fisheries," Garcia added.

At the meeting, the United States is requesting that the FAO adopt specific plans of action to address these three world fishery issues. The U.S. position has been developed through intensive consultations with domestic constituencies and many countries worldwide.

The United States has been an active participant in the capacity initiative from the beginning, and strongly supports the elaboration of a substantive and meaningful FAO-sponsored plan of action on managing capacity. A formal endorsement may occur at the next FAO Committee on Fisheries (COFI) meeting in February 1999.

"We believe the U.S. position on a draft FAO plan of action, if adopted, would begin to significantly reduce the excessive capacity that has existed in the global fishing fleet," said Garcia. "The U.S. position contains several key provisions that will accomplish a reduction in fleet capacity over time."

The draft plan of action sought by the United States includes a number of processes to reduce overcapacity. These processes include dates certain for identifying national and regional fisheries that need immediate attention, improving coordination among regional fisheries organizations, acting to discourage fishing on the high seas that undermines conservation rules, and seeking adjustments for those fishing communities that are negatively affected by the FAO capacity reduction plans.

"In the U.S., we have already documented significant reductions in many shark populations in the Atlantic adjacent to our shores, and have acted to reduce U.S. overfishing of these stocks," said Garcia. "The FAO plan of action enables countries and regional bodies worldwide to move forward with plans for world shark fisheries, including improved control of shark catch, better data collection and monitoring of stock status, minimizing waste, and better conservation and management of all shark species."

The United States also supports the use of the precautionary approach as the basis for preventing overfishing and for addressing priority issues in the conservation and management of sharks at all geographical levels. Consistent with a precautionary approach to international and domestic fisheries management, the U.S. believes that the FAO plans of action should recommend effective and immediate conservation measures, even if the presently available data is less than perfect. The precautionary approach was adopted at FAO in 1995 in its Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries.

"Many species of seabirds fall victim to longline fishing practices," said Garcia. "The United States is currently working with its domestic fishermen on a wide variety of bycatch reduction issues, including seabirds. The global community also agrees that bycatch must be reduced, and now is the time for nations to implement this agreement."

The U.S. is seeking a plan of action that provides that each fishing nation will have appropriate mitigation measures in place to reduce the incidental capture of seabirds in longline fisheries by December 1999. Each nation will also submit an annual report on seabird bycatch to the FAO.