Minimum Mesh Regulation for Haddock Fishery in sub-area 5 of the area covered by The International Convention For The Northwest Atlantic Fisheries

Filename: 1952-MeshRegulation-1949-NorthwestAtlanticFisheries.EN.txt

Minimum Mesh Regulation for Haddock Fishery in Sub-Area 5 of the Area Covered by the International Convention for the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries

Source: http://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/UNTS/Volume%20200/v200.pdf, p. 317, downloaded 20120118

Minimum Mesh Regulation for Haddock Fishery in Sub-Area 5 of the Area Covered by the Above-Mentioned Convention. Proposed by the International Commission for the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries and Transmitted to the Government of the United States of America On 15 July 1952

i. That appropriate action be taken by Contracting Governments to prohibit the taking of haddock (melanogrammus aeglefinus) by persons under their jurisdiction in Sub-area 5, with a trawl net which has a mesh size of less than four and one-half inches. For the purpose of this proposal the size of the mesh shall be taken to be the average of any ten consecutive meshes of the trawl net selected at the discretion of the enforcement officer and measured individually stretched diagonally while wet, with a flat wedgeshaped gauge having a taper of two inches in nine inches and a thickness of three thirtyseconds of an inch, inserted into the mesh under a pressure of twelve pounds.

ii. The provisions of the immediately preceding paragraph shall apply to a vessel which shall have in its possession at the time haddock amounting to five thousand pounds avoirdupois or more or amounting to ten per cent or more of the weight of all fish on board, whichever is the larger. It shall not apply to Government Fishery Research vessels or to other vessels authorized by a Contracting Government to use a smaller mesh for purposes of scientific investigation. Such Contracting Government shall report to the Commission the number and names of such research vessels or other vessels so authorized.

iii. (1) No vessel while operating in Sub-area 5 shall use any device by means of which the mesh in any part of a trawl net is obstructed or otherwise in effect diminished.

(2) Notwithstanding the provisions of the foregoing sub-paragraph, it shall not be deemed unlawful to attach to the underside of the cod-end of a trawl net any canvas, netting, or other material, for the purpose of preventing or reducing wear and tear.

1. United Nations, Treaty Series, Vol. 157, p. 157, and Vol. 174, p. 338.

2. Became effective on 13 June 1953, with respect to all parties to the Convention, in accordance with paragraph 8 of article VIII of the Convention.