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TIME: Almanac 1990
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1990 Time Magazine Compact Almanac, The (1991)(Time).iso
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060589
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1990-09-17
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ENVIRONMENT, Page 70Fish Mining on The Open SeasThe U.S. seeks a new deal with Japan to curb use of killer nets
The huge webs of strong nylon mesh, known as drift nets, can
cover a slice of ocean up to 40 miles wide and 40 ft. deep. In
North Pacific waters, fishermen from Japan, South Korea and Taiwan
routinely let the nets float for as long as nine hours at night.
They are intended to catch squid, but they also scoop up sea
turtles, porpoises, seals, birds and various kinds of fish.
Environmentalists call them killer nets and accuse those who use
them of "strip-mining" the ocean.
Of particular concern to the U.S. and Canada is the damage
inflicted by the nets on North Pacific stocks of sea trout and
salmon. U.S. fishing-industry representatives claim that some Asian
fishermen have been pulling large numbers of salmon out of nets
intended for squid. As a result, they say, fewer young fish return
to North American spawning streams.
A 1987 U.S. law called for international cooperation in
monitoring catches on the open seas and enforcing fishing
constraints. The U.S. and Japan later reached an agreement under
which 32 U.S. observers would go aboard 460 Japanese squid-catching
vessels to determine their fishing locations and count the number
of sea creatures unintentionally killed by their nets. But after
U.S. diplomats had worked out the arrangement, National Marine
Fisheries Service officials declared it to be insufficiently
stringent and called for revisions. Last week Commerce Secretary
Robert Mosbacher told the State Department that the pact was
unacceptable and would have to be renegotiated. Japan, however, is
unwilling to reopen the negotiations. Japanese fishing officials
point out that U.S. salmon fishermen use the same kind of drift
nets that Asians do. The American versions, however, are many times
smaller.
U.S. officials hope any final agreement reached with Japan will
serve as a model for similar deals with Taiwan and South Korea. But
they may resist U.S. pressure. Says T.F. Chen, a Taiwanese marine
fisheries official: "We could never allow foreign representatives
to board and inspect (our boats). We can handle the enforcement
ourselves."