High Seas Driftnet Fishing Moratorium Protection Act 1995 (Title VI)

file:///D/HTML/Usa5862.htm[16.01.2025 12:14:22] TITLE VI--DRIFTNET MORATORIUM SEC. 601. SHORT TITLE. This title may be cited as the `High Seas Driftnet Fishing Moratorium Protection Act'. SEC. 602. FINDINGS. The Congress finds that (1) Congress has enacted and the President has signed into law numerous Acts to control or prohibit large-scale driftnet fishing both within the jurisdiction of the United States and beyond the exclusive economic zone of any nation, including the Driftnet Impact Monitoring, Assessment, and Control Act of 1987 (title IV, Public Law 100-220), the Driftnet Act Amendments of 1990 (Public Law 101-627), and the High Seas Driftnet Fisheries Enforcement Act (title I, Public Law 102-582); (2) the United States is a party to the Convention for the Prohibition of Fishing with Long Driftnets in the South Pacific, also known as the Wellington Convention; (3) the General Assembly of the United Nations has adopted three resolutions and three decisions which established and reaffirm a global moratorium on large-scale driftnet fishing on the high seas, beginning with Resolution 44/225 in 1989 and most recently in Decision 48/445 in 1993; (4) the General Assembly of the United Nations adopted these resolutions and decisions at the request of the United States and other concerned nations; (5) the best scientific information demonstrates the wastefulness and potentially destructive impacts of large-scale driftnet fishing on living marine resources and seabirds; and (6) Resolution 46/215 of the United Nations General Assembly calls on all nations, both individually and collectively, to prevent large-scale driftnet fishing on the high seas. SEC. 603. PROHIBITION. The United States, or any agency or official acting on behalf of the United States, may not enter into any international agreement with respect to the conservation and management of living marine resources or the use of the high seas by fishing vessels that would prevent full implementation of the global moratorium on large scale driftnet fishing on the high seas, as such moratorium is expressed in Resolution 46/215 of the United Nations General Assembly. SEC. 604. NEGOTIATIONS. The Secretary of State, on behalf of the United States, shall seek to enhance the implementation and effectiveness of the United Nations General Assembly resolutions and decisions regarding the moratorium on large-scale driftnet fishing on the high seas through appropriate international agreements and organizations. SEC. 605. CERTIFICATION. The Secretary of State shall determine in writing prior to the signing or provisional application by the United States of any international agreement with respect to the conservation and management of living marine resources or the use of the high seas by fishing vessels that the prohibition contained in section 603 will not be violated if such agreement is signed or provisionally applied. SEC. 606. ENFORCEMENT. file:///D/HTML/Usa5862.htm[16.01.2025 12:14:22] The President shall utilize appropriate assets of the Department of Defense, the United States Coast Guard, and other Federal agencies to detect, monitor, and prevent violations of the United Nations moratorium on large-scale driftnet fishing on the high seas for all fisheries under the jurisdiction of the United States and, in the case of fisheries not under the jurisdiction of the United States, to the fullest extent permitted under international law. Speaker of the House of Representatives. Vice President of the United States and President of the Senate.