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The Convention on Conduct of Fishing Operations in the North Atlantic, London, 1967*
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 May 2009
Extract
The Conference which met at Lancaster House, London, from March 31 to April 6, 1966, from October 17 to 28, 1966, and from March 6 to 17, 1967, and which resulted in the establishment of a new “Convention on Conduct of Fishing Operations in the North Atlantic” was made necessary by the denunciation by the British Government in 1963 of the Hague “International Convention for regulating the Police of the North Sea Fisheries” which, since 1882, had governed the conduct of fishing operations and their policing between the coastal states of the North Sea. Formally the convening of this Conference was based on a resolution, adopted by the 1963/64 European Fisheries Conference on January 17, 1964, asking the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland:
“To invite the Governments of all countries participating in the North-East Atlantic fisheries to send representatives to a technical conference to be held as soon as possible to prepare for the consideration of the governments concerned a draft Convention, on the general lines of the 1882 Convention for regulating the police of the North Sea Fisheries, embodying a modern code for the conduct of fishing operations and of related activities in the North-East Atlantic;
And to invite the Governments of the United States of America and Canada to send representatives to the Conference so that the extension of the provisions of any such Convention to the North-West Atlantic Fisheries may be considered.”
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- Copyright © T.M.C. Asser Press 1967
References
1 The Convention of May 6, 1882, as amended by the Hague declaration of February 1, 1889 and by the Hague Agreement of June 3, 1955, is at present still in force between Belgium, Denmark, France, the Federal Republic of Germany and the Netherlands.
2 London Convention of March 9, 1964.
3 The denunciation took effect from May 15, 1964.
4 On April 29, 1963 the then Lord Privy Seal, Mr. Edward Heath, made a declaration in similar terms.
5 Geneva, February 24 to April 28, 1958.
6 Geneva, March 12 to April 27, 1960.
7 For the various proposals made during those conferences, see De (tweede) Conferentie van de Verenigde Naties over het Zeerecht, Publications of the Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs, No. 56 and No. 64.
8 Norway acted likewise in September 1961.
9 The Commission of the European Economic Community was also represented at the Conference, as an observer.
10 See: Riphagen, , The London Fisheries Conference of 1963–1964, International Spectator XVIII, Nr. 12.Google Scholar
11 Fisheries policies in Western Europe and North America.
12 Poland acceded to the North Sea Fisheries Convention 1964 on June 7, 1966. Austria and Switzerland who had participated in the 1963/64 Conference did not take part in the 1966/67 Conference and the International Maritime Consultative Organisation sent an observer.
13 International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea, 1960.
14 Denmark, Iceland and Norway.
15 For the proceedings of the Conference, see Conference Summary Records, FPC(66) 1st and and meetings, and FPC(67) 1st meeting.
16 The 1882-Convention applied only outside territorial waters (Art. 1), but in those days that meant a uniform 3 miles (Art. 3).
17 Although this term is a colloquialism until recently exclusively used for indicating the rules embodied in the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (1960), the Conference frequently used this same expression for the rules laid down in the annexes of the present Convention, since these also cover rules of conduct for vessels, additional lights, etc.
18 In his article on the 1964 Conference, Professor Riphagen states inter alia: “Of course, the 16 states represented at the Conference could not…jointly establish a universally applicable rule of international law. The Conference could and did in effect draft the rules for a conventional regime…and invite those states who were not represented at the Conference to adopt the same regime. This is in fact what was done.”
19 The Netherlands, for instance, did not recognise the exclusive fishing zone established by Denmark around the Far-Øer in April 1959, nor did Great Britain, the Netherlands or several other interested nations, recognise the exclusive fishing zone (12 miles) decreed by Iceland around its coasts on June 30, 1958.
20 With few exceptions, such as the elimination of an article on the liability of trawlers mentioned earlier, the decisions of the Conference were taken unanimously, without majority voting.
21 The term “national fisheries limits” later on was changed in all articles of the Convention into “area where a Coastal State has jurisdiction over fisheries.”
22 36° North latitude in the Western part of the Atlantic (viz., Annex I of the Convention).