Bartlett Defends Halibut Stand; Says Treaty Vital;
Fisheries Not Important As Japs To U.S. Military
Alaska’s fisheries would face a
bleak future should the Interna
tional North Pacific Fisheries
treaty be ended and Alaskan fish
ermen would not be able to count
upon the U.S. military establish
ment to assist them in chasing the
Japanese out of high seas fishing
areas which termination of the
treaty would throw open to the.n,
according to a letter sent the Ko
diak Mirror by U.S. Senator E. L.
“Bob” Bartlett this week.
The letter was in reply to criti
cisms that he, Rep. Gil Jarvela, and
others had failed to back up our
Kodiak fishermen by adopting a
stronger stand on the issue of per
mitting the Japanese to fish hali
but in the Eastern Bering Sea.
The Senator said in part:
“Should the American and Ca
nadian sections have resisted and
refused the Japanese demand for
opening the Eastern Bering Sea?
If they had refused, I suggest it
would have been running exactly
counter to the language and obli
gation of the treaty itself, which re
quires the Commission to deter
mine in respect to any stock of fish
whether it qualifies for abstention.
This determination must be made
annually.
“The International North Pa
cific Fisheries Commission was
not able to say that Eastern Ber
ing halibut qualified for absten
tion. The Commission was ad
vised by the experts of the Inter
national Pacific Halibut Commis
sion. It is my understanding and
I believe the records will dis
close that these experts were not
able either to prove that Cana
dian and American fishermen
were utilizing these halibut
stocks. So if the Japanese de
mand had been rejected the Jap
anese could have claimed that
the two other contracting parties
to the treaty had failed to live
up to its provisions,’’ said Bart
lett.
“What would have that meant?
No one can say with surety. Per
haps nothing. There are many who
believe that nothing would have
happened if these two sections of
the Commission representing our
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side of the Pacific had reached a
contrary conclusion. There are
others who entertain an opposite
view. I am one of them,” Bartlett
stated.
Bartlett pointed out he had
been to Japan three times since
1959 and said, “There can be no
doubt whatsoever that important
government and fishing repre
sentatives (of Japan) feel the
1952 treaty is unfair to Japan,
and they desire to terminate it.”
“I shall be the first or at least
among the first to admit that
grievous hurt has been done to our
industry, and more importantly as
far as I am concerned, to the wel
fare of the Bristol Bay residents
by reason of the taking of salmon
west of the 175 degrees west longi
tude. A hard blow has been struck
at our Bristol Bay fishery,” said
Bartlett.
“We are concerned, as we
ought to be, with the eastward
push of the Japanese into the
Bering Sea. Let us not, however,
fail to look beyond this immedi
ate issue. Let us look into a fu
ture with no treaty at all. Then
we are having a good look at a
situation which could leave the
great North Pacific fishery in
such short supply that commer
cial operations would be no
longer useful or economic. Then
we could predict that intensive
fishing of the ocean waters would
inevitably occur and this great
future resource, so needed by the
world of today and tomorrow,
would be gone forever.
“For what would happen with
out a treaty?” the Senator asked.
“What would happen is this: The
Japanese could fish to within three
miles of our coast for any species
of fish. How many Kodiak fisher
men depend for their livelihood
upon halibut fishing in the East
ern Bering Sea? How many Ko
diak fishermen depend for their
livelihood upon salmon fishing?
Those are the questions which
must be asked and must be an
swered. Is it better to live up to
the treaty obligations and permit
the Japanese to come into the East
ern Bering Sea or to chance wreck
ing the treaty and having the Jap
anese fish in any manner they
choose to within three miles of
Kodiak Island or any Alaska terri
tory? That is the issue. That js
basic. We cannot get around it.
Some of us insist that this can
never hapen because we will
send gunboats out and chase the
Japanese off the high seas. By
the way, right now the American
Navy hasn’t a single gunboat!
Actually, we would not do any
such thing. We would not for
several reasons. One of them is
that this would be gross violation
of international law because
without a treaty the Japanese
would be fishing on the high
(Continued on Page 8)
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