subject to the respective jurisdiction of the United States and of these countries.

The limits of the fishery conservation zone of the United States as set forth below are intended to be without prejudice to any negotiations with these countries or to any positions which may have been or may be adopted respecting the limits of maritime jurisdiction in such areas.

The body of the notice lists coordinates under the following headings: U.S. Atlantic Coast and Gulf of Mexico, U.S. Pacific Coast (Washington, Oregon, and California), Alaska, The Caribbean Sea, Central and Western Pacific.

For the complete text, see 42 Fed. Reg. 12937-12940 (1977). For subsequent modifications of the text of Department Notice No. 526, see post, p. 561.

During the daily press conference of March 1, 1977, the Director of the Office of Press Relations of the Department of State, Frederick Z. Brown, indicated that the establishment of the fishery conservation zone creates maritime boundaries with Canada, Mexico, the Soviet Union, the Bahamas, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, the Netherlands Antilles, Venezuela, the British Virgin Islands, Tonga, Western Samoa, the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, and various islands in the Pacific Ocean which are under the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom or New Zealand. The limits of the fishery conservation zone were established on the basis of the principle of equidistance in those cases where the application of that principle produces an equitable limit. However, in the Gulf of Maine area between the United States and Canada and in the Blake Plateau area between the United States and the Bahamas, the Government of the United States was of the opinion that special circumstances required that the limits of the fishery conservation zone be set along lines which reflected those special circumstances; and in the Chukchi and Bering Seas and the North Pacific Ocean, the limits of the fishery conservation zone follow the line established by the Convention of 1867 between the United States and Russia concerning the cession of Alaska (15 Stat. 539; TS 301; 11 Bevans 1216) where that line is within 200 nautical miles of the U.S. coast.

At the time of the announcement, the United States and Canada had basic differences of view concerning the limits of fishery jurisdiction in the area of the Gulf of Maine and the Beaufort Sea, while the United States and the Soviet Union shared the view that their fishery limits should follow the 1867 Convention line where it is within 200 nautical miles of the coast. The United States and Mexico had agreed on provisional maritime boundaries in the Gulf of Mexico and Pacific Ocean which will be used by the United States as the limit

of its fishery jurisdiction. As of March 1, 1977, neither the Bahamas nor Cuba had advised the United States regarding their positions on the limits of fishery jurisdiction.

In response to questions during the daily news briefing, David A. Colson of the Legal Adviser's Office indicated that the Trust Territory of the Pacific, the area normally called Micronesia, is not included under the terms of the Fishery Conservation and Management Act pursuant to the request of the Congress of Micronesia and thus did not receive a 200-mile fishery conservation zone under the Act. Accordingly, the line defining the fishery conservation zone around the island of Guam is a line equidistant between Guam and those Micronesian islands which are within 400 nautical miles of Guam. Mr. Colson said that the primary reason for the Micronesian request to be excluded under the terms of the Fishery Conservation and Management Act was that the Act did not include jurisdiction over tuna fish, which is the major fishery resource in that area.

Dept. of State News Briefing, DPC 37, Mar. 1, 1977.

Terence C. Todman, Assistant U.S. Secretary of State for InterAmerican Affairs, and Dr. Pelegrin Torras, Vice-Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba, exchanged diplomatic notes on April 27, 1977, establishing a modus vivendi concerning the maritime boundary between their respective governments which took into account recent legislation in both countries establishing 200-mile zones. The modus vivendi created a simplified boundary which began in the east at the trijunction point equidistant from the nearest coastal points of the United States, Cuba, and the Bahamas and proceeded south westerly separating the Cuban and U.S. zones until it touched latitude 23°50′ N at longitude 81°50′ W. It then followed this latitude to longitude 83°12'10" W, where it became the line published by the United States in the Federal Register of March 7, 1977, in which the United States delimited the area under U.S. fishery conservation and management jurisdiction pending agreement to establish maritime boundaries.

The modus vivendi established the coordinates that both countries used as the maritime boundary for 1977. A simplified line was chosen because both sides regarded it as important to have an operating understanding as quickly as possible on the limits of each country's zone. The modus vivendi delimited the respective zones but expressly provided that, except for this purpose, "each side reserves its position with respect to the law of the sea." The United States did not at the time of the signing recognize the twelve-mile territorial sea or a 200-mile general economic zone, which Cuba had recently proclaimed.

The text of the agreement contained the following stipulation concerning sovereign rights over the waters or seabed and subsoil:

It shall be understood by the two Governments that on the north side of the line Cuba would not, and on the south side of the line the United States would not, for any purpose, claim or exercise sovereign rights or jurisdiction over the waters or seabed and subsoil.

Except for the understanding in the preceeding paragraph each side reserves its position with respect to the law of the sea.

Dept. of State Press Release 233 May 26, 1977).

At the same time as the modus vivendi was concluded, the United States and Cuba also exchanged notes relating to the lapse of the Convention for the Prevention of Smuggling of Intoxicating Liquors into the United States, signed on Mar. 4, 1926 (TS 738; 44 Stat. 2395), and relating to termination of the Convention for the Conservation of Shrimp, signed on Aug. 15, 1958 (TIAS 4321; 10 UST 1703). In view of the legislation by both governments which created the need for establishing a maritime boundary, it was recognized that both of these treaties were outdated and could have no further applicability. The exchange of notes on the 1926 Convention recognized that the Convention, by its own terms (Art. VI), had automatically lapsed. The exchange of notes on the 1958 Convention terminated it with effect 1 year from the date of signature, in accordance with the termination provision of the Convention (Art. VIII, par. 2). Id.

Establishment of a preliminary boundary by agreement pending conclusion of a boundary treaty was consistent with past practice. See e.g., Exchange of Notes Between the United States and Great Britain, October 20, 1899, Fixing a Provisional Boundary Line Between Canada and the Territory of Alaska about the Head of Lynn Canal, 12 Bevans 251; Exchange of Notes Between the United States and Mexico, November 24, 1976, Concerning Certain Maritime Boundaries. For the coordinates of the maritime boundaries established by the U.S.-Cuban modus vivendi of Apr. 27, 1977, see Dept. of State Notice No. 544 published on May 12, 1977, in 42 Fed. Reg. 24134 (1977).

On December 16, 1977, the United States and Cuba signed a maritime boundary treaty provisionally applicable from January 1, 1978, for a period of two years and to enter into force permanently on the date of exchange of instruments of ratification. The treaty was without prejudice to either party's positions concerning the "nature of the sovereign rights exercised by States, the rules of international law with respect to the exercise of jurisdiction over the waters or seabed and subsoil; or any other matter relating to the law of the sea."

The Dept. of State, acting through Acting Assistant Legal Adviser Franklin K. Willis, published a notice effective Jan. 11, 1978, in 42 Fed. Reg. 1659 indicating the maritime boundary coordinates established by the treaty. The line formed by the coordinates were "deemed to replace that portion of the line set forth in the Department's notice No. 526 on March 7, 1977, . . . as superseded by the modus vivendi of 1977 between the United States and Cuba as set forth in the Department's notice No. 544 of May 12, 1977."

On January 11, 1978, the Department of State, acting through Mark B. Feldman, Deputy Legal Adviser, published fishery conservation zone limits for Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands. Portions of

the notice, which took effect immediately upon publication, read in part as follows:

The Covenant to Establish a Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands in Political Union with the United States of America (Pub. L. 94-241) provides that the President shall determine and proclaim a date within 180 days after the Covenant and Constitution of the Northern Mariana Islands have been approved upon which certain laws applicable to Guam and which are applicable to the several States shall become applicable to the Northern Mariana Islands. The Fishery Conservation and Management Act is one such law. By Presidential proclamation of October 24, 1977, this law and other such laws shall become applicable to the Northern Mariana Islands at eleven o'clock on the morning of January 9, 1978, Northern Mariana Islands local time.

The line connecting the coordinates set forth below constitutes the limits of the fishery conservation zone of the United States of America around Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands within which the United States will exercise its exclusive fishery management authority as set forth in the Fishery Conservation and Management Act effective as of January 9, 1978, and pending the establishment of permanent maritime boundaries by mutual agreement.

42 Fed. Reg. 1658 (1977). The maritime boundary coordinates published on Jan. 11, 1978, replace a portion of the Dept.'s public notice No. 526 of Mar. 7, 1977 (42 Fed. Reg. 12937), as later modified by public notice No. 544 of May 12. 1977 (42 Fed. Reg. 24134).

Atlantic Tuna

On May 26, 1977, an Act (Public Law 95-33; 91 Stat. 173) was approved authorizing appropriations for fiscal years 1978, 1979, and 1980 for the International Convention for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas done on May 14, 1966 (TIAS 6767; 20 UST 2887; 673 UNTS 63; entered into force for the United States on March 21, 1969), and redefining the term "fisheries zone" in the Atlantic Tunas Convention Act of 1975 to give it the same meaning as used in the Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 1976 (16 U.S.C. 18211825). Section 2(4) of the 1975 Tuna Act (16 U.S.C. 971(4)) was amended to read as follows:

(4) The term "fisheries zone" means the waters included within a zone contiguous to the territorial sea of the United States, of which the inner boundary is a line coterminous with the seaward boundary of each coastal State, and the outer boundary is a line drawn in such a manner that each point on it is two hundred nautical miles from the baseline from which the territorial sea is measured; or similar

zones established by other parties to the Convention to the extent that such zones are recognized by the United States.

P.L. 95-33; 91 Stat. 173.

Bilateral Agreements

Governing International Fishery Agreements

On February 22, 1977, President Carter signed into law Enrolled Resolution H.J. Res. 240 (Public Law 95-6), entitled the Fishery Conservation Zone Transition Act (Transition Act), approving, inter alia, the bilateral Governing International Fishery Agreements (GIFA's) between the United States and Bulgaria, Romania, the Republic of China, the German Democratic Republic, the Soviet Union, and Poland. The Transition Act brought these GIFA's into force on the date of its enactment by providing temporary waivers of certain provisions of the Fishery Conservation and Management Act of 1976 (16 U.S.C. 1821-1825), which require foreign governments to acknowledge U.S. jurisdiction over fisheries within 200 miles of U.S. coastlines before applying for permits for fishing vessels to enter specified fisheries within this zone. Excerpts from the Presidential announcement concerning the signing of this Transition Act follow:

[The Fishery Conservation and Management Act] established a 200-mile fishery conservation zone effective March 1, 1977. The act prohibits fishing within this zone by foreign vessels after that date unless the foreign nation concerned has completed a Governing International Fishery Agreement with the United States.

Since enactment of the legislation, it has proven impossible to complete negotiations on all Agreements in time for an orderly transition on March 1 from the present 12-mile fishing zone to the new 200-mile limit.

The effect of the waivers [provided in the Transition Act], most of which deal with time periods set for various phases of negotiating Agreements, is to make it possible to conclude Agreements by March 1, facilitating the implementation of the Act.

13 Weekly Comp. of Pres. Doc. 241 (Feb. 28, 1977).

On March 3, 1977, President Carter approved an Act (P.L. 95–8; 91 Stat. 18) to amend the Transition Act to bring into force as of February 27, 1977, the bilateral GIFA's between the United States and the European Economic Community, Japan, the Republic of Korea, and Spain. On December 28, 1977, President Carter signed into law an Act (P.L. 96-219; 91 Stat. 1613) approving as of February 27, 1977, the GIFA between the United States and Mexico.