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Skriven 2005-05-16 23:41:02 av Whitehouse Press (1:3634/12.0)
Ärende: Press Release (0505167) for Mon, 2005 May 16
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Message to the United States Senate Regarding WCPF Convention
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For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
May 16, 2005

Message to the United States Senate Regarding WCPF Convention



TO THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES:

With a view to receiving the advice and consent of the Senate to
ratification, I transmit herewith the Convention on the Conservation and
Management of the Highly Migratory Fish Stocks in the Western and Central
Pacific Ocean, with Annexes (the "WCPF Convention"), which was adopted at
Honolulu on September 5, 2000, by the Multilateral High Level Conference on
the Highly Migratory Fish Stocks in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean.
The United States signed the Convention on that date. I also transmit, for
the information of the Senate, the report of the Secretary of State with
respect to the WCPF Convention.

The WCPF Convention sets forth legal obligations and establishes
cooperative mechanisms that are needed in order to ensure the long term
conservation and sustainable use of highly migratory fish stocks (such as
tuna, swordfish, and marlin) that range across extensive areas of the high
seas as well as through waters under the fisheries jurisdiction of numerous
coastal States. These constitute resources of worldwide importance, with
the fisheries for tuna in the Western and Central Pacific being the largest
and most valuable in the world. Implementation of the WCPF Convention will
offer the opportunity to conserve and manage these resources responsibly
before they become subject to the pressures of overfishing and over
capacity that are so evident elsewhere in the world's oceans.

The WCPF Convention builds upon the 1982 United Nations Convention on the
Law of the Sea and the 1995 United Nations Agreement on the Conservation
and Management of Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks.
The WCPF Convention gives effect to the provisions of these two
instruments, which recognize cooperation to conserve highly migratory fish
stocks as essential, and require those with direct interests in them --
coastal States with authority to manage fishing in waters under their
jurisdiction and nations whose vessels fish for these stocks -- to engage
in such cooperation through regional fishery management organizations.

The WCPF Convention balances in an equitable fashion the interests of
coastal States, notably the island States that comprise the Forum Fisheries
Agency (FFA), in protecting important fishery resources off their shores,
and the interests of distant water fishing States, notably Asian fishing
nations and entities (Japan, Republic of Korea, China, and Taiwan), whose
fishing vessels range far from their own shores.

The United States, which played an instrumental role in achieving this
balance, has direct and important interests in the WCPF Convention and its
early and effective implementation. The United States is both a major
distant water fishing nation (with the fourth-largest catch in the region)
and an important coastal State with significant Exclusive Economic Zone
waters in the region (including the waters around Hawaii, American Samoa,
Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands).

United States fishing concerns, including the U.S. tuna industry, U.S.
conservation organizations, and U.S. consumers, as well as those residents
of Hawaii and the U.S. Flag Pacific island areas of Guam, American Samoa,
and the Northern Mariana Islands, all have a crucial stake in the health of
the oceans and their resources as promoted by the WCPF Convention.

I recommend that the Senate give early and favorable consideration to the
WCPF Convention and give its advice and consent to its ratification.

GEORGE W. BUSH

THE WHITE HOUSE,

May 16, 2005.

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