Desarrollo de la Antártica

Briall Roberts I INTERNATIONAL COOPERATIO" FOR ANTARCTIC ••• ternationallaw as regards those parrs of the high seas wihích lie withín the Treaty Area. In simpler language, thís meant that the measures agreed upon for conservatíon on land would not affect the right of fishing and hunting on the high seas. Is was for this reason tillat we tried a new experiment ·with tho; 'Convention for I:1he Conservatíon of Antarctic Seals' sig,ned in Lau· don in 1972. T:his was negotiated between tihe twelve original Con– sultative Parties of the Antarctic Treaty. This conference and the resultin¡g convention arose from the fact that a farum for interna– tional discussion about Antarctic affairs already existed. It would have been extremely difficult to start again from the beginning. We were able to arrange sorne wholly informal preparatory discus– sions during the Fifth Consultative Meeting in 1968, and to make real progress with a draft convention at the Sixth Meeting in 1970. It took eleven years to organize even this relatively simple agreement. Tlhe 'Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Seals' Slhould be regarded as an initial attempt to start hamessing the problems of Southern Ocean fisheries. It might be useful if we couId discuss this as one of the possibIe pattems for future procedure. Wenusl face the fact that the gron? of nations which will become interested in Southern Ocean fisheries will inelude others than Ilh05e whiéh have been actively partici pating in scientific research in the Ant– arctic. For the same reasons, the goveronments which adhere to the InternationaI \J\Thaling Convention are not the same group of natíons as are interested in other aspects of Antarctic r·esearch and develop– mento It is for these reasons that 1 believe the Antarctic Treaty na· tions should take the initiative in negotiating what will probably be a series of conventions relating to the proper m:magement of krill and fish in the Southern Ocean. We need a separa te series of agree– ments which will not require governments to accede to the Antarctic Treaty before their nationals undertake fishing in the Southern Ocean. We sti11 know very little about the whole ecosystem, or about the biology of Antarctic krill and fish. It has therefore been encou– raging to see the response of SCAR and SCOR, which last year inaugu– rated an internationally co-ordinated research programme calletl BIOMASS (Biological Investigations of rhe Marine Antarctic System and Stocks) . But an agreement on the rational management of these renewable resources cannot await the results of this massive long– term research ptogramme. We need to start with something quite simple that can be negotiated quickly. 1 have in mind, for example, 345