A History of Some of the International Fisheries Commissions

• Published in: Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh. Section B. Biology
• Main Author: Cushing, D. H.
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Cambridge University Press (CUP) 1972
• Subjects: General Engineering; North East Atlantic
• Online Access: http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0080455x00002411; https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0080455X00002411

This paper is an account of the development of the International Fisheries Commissions. Excluded are the commissions under the aegis of FAO: an earlier group, for example the Indo-Pacific Fisheries Commission, are only advisory, and later ones, like the Atlantic Tuna Commission, have not been in existence for long enough to discern characteristics in their activity. The activities of the Russo-Japanese commissions in the north-west Pacific are also excluded, because their actions do not have great influence on the older commissions or upon the newer ones established in the last five years or so. Although the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea has now only an advisory function in the North-East Atlantic Fisheries Commission, during its earlier history before World War II it was always able to act through the Danish Foreign Office. But a much more important point is that the International Council played a historically dominant part in the early development of many of the commissions, except of course those which originated in the north-east Pacific.