To support scientific evaluation of the effects of exploitation, STACRES considered the following: landed weights by year, area and species for at least five principal species; by size; annual fishing effort; and estimates of discards, for the development of means for maintaining maximum sustained yield. Thus, the concept of MSY (maximum sustainable yield) was expressed early on by ICNAF as a management objective. This concept was broadened in 1971 to one of achieving optimal utilization.
The Commission, composed of up to three representatives of each Contracting Party, was responsible for carrying out the tasks laid out in the Convention. The composition of Contracting Parties changed over time as countries became more or less involved in fisheries in the Convention area.
Additional Information:
ICNAF Handbook. ICNAF Secretariat.1965
The Delimitation of Fishing Areas in the Northwest Atlantic, By R. G. Halliday and A. T. Pinhorn, JNAFS, Vol. 10
"investigate, protect and conserve fisheries of the northwest Atlantic Ocean, in order to make possible the maintenance of a maximum sustained catch from those fisheries".
The first regulatory convention that pertained to the North Atlantic was the 1943 Draft Convention relating to the Policing of Fisheries and Measures for the Protection of Immature Fish (Halliday and Pinhorn 1996, Sen 1997). However, Canada and USA shared doubts that North American interests would be well served by a North Atlantic-wide organization dominated by European states. That convention never came into force in the northwest Atlantic.
John Cabot, n.d. John Cabot in the Matthew off Cape Bonavista in 1497. Painting by C. Dinsmore. From J. R. Smallwood, ed., The Book of Newfoundland, Vol. 2 (St. John's: Newfoundland Book Publishers, 1937).
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