    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2005, Book I)]
    [May 16, 2005]
    [Pages 807-808]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Message to the Senate Transmitting the Convention on the Conservation
    and Management of the Highly Migratory Fish Stocks in the Western and
    Central Pacific Ocean, With Annexes
    May 16, 2005

    To the Senate of the United States:
        With a view to receiving the advice and consent of the Senate to
    ratification, I transmit herewith the Convention on the Conservation and
    Management of the Highly Migratory Fish Stocks in the Western and
    Central Pacific Ocean, with Annexes (the ``WCPF Convention''), which was
    adopted at Honolulu on September 5, 2000, by the Multilateral High Level
    Conference on the Highly Migratory Fish Stocks in the Western and
    Central Pacific Ocean. The United States signed the Convention on that
    date. I also transmit, for the information of the Senate, the report of
    the Secretary of State with respect to the WCPF Convention.
        The WCPF Convention sets forth legal obligations and establishes
    cooperative mechanisms that are needed in order to ensure the long-term
    conservation and sustainable use of highly migratory fish stocks (such
    as tuna, swordfish, and marlin) that range across extensive areas of the
    high seas as well as through waters under the fisheries jurisdiction of
    numerous coastal States. These constitute resources of worldwide
    importance, with the fisheries for tuna in the Western and Central
    Pacific being the largest and most valuable in the world. Implementation
    of the WCPF Convention will offer the opportunity to conserve and manage
    these resources responsibly before they become subject to the pressures
    of overfishing and over-capacity that are so evident elsewhere in the
    world's oceans.
        The WCPF Convention builds upon the 1982 United Nations Convention
    on the Law of the Sea and the 1995 United Nations Agreement on the
    Conservation and Management of Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly
    Migratory Fish Stocks. The WCPF Convention gives effect to the
    provisions of these two instruments, which recognize cooperation to
    conserve highly migratory fish stocks as essential, and require those
    with direct interests in them--coastal States with authority to manage
    fishing in waters under their jurisdiction and nations whose vessels
    fish for these stocks--to engage in such cooperation through regional
    fishery management organizations.
        The WCPF Convention balances in an equitable fashion the interests
    of coastal States, notably the island States that comprise the Forum
    Fisheries Agency (FFA), in protecting important fishery resources off
    their shores, and the interests of distant water fishing States, notably
    Asian fishing nations and entities (Japan, Republic of Korea, China, and
    Taiwan), whose fishing vessels range far from their own shores.
        The United States, which played an instrumental role in achieving
    this balance, has direct and important interests in the WCPF Convention
    and its early and effective implementation. The United States is both a
    major distant water fishing nation (with the fourth-largest catch in the
    region)

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    and an important coastal State with significant Exclusive Economic Zone
    waters in the region (including the waters around Hawaii, American
    Samoa, Guam, and the Northern Mariana Islands).
        United States fishing concerns, including the U.S. tuna industry,
    U.S. conservation organizations, and U.S. consumers, as well as those
    residents of Hawaii and the U.S. Flag Pacific island areas of Guam,
    American Samoa, and the Northern Mariana Islands, all have a crucial
    stake in the health of the oceans and their resources as promoted by the
    WCPF Convention.
        I recommend that the Senate give early and favorable consideration
    to the WCPF Convention and give its advice and consent to its
    ratification.

                                                              George W. Bush

     The White House,

     May 16, 2005.