The Halibut Convention of 1923

 
Efforts to consumate a treaty in 1919 were unsuccessful, but the halibut industry persisted in advocating international control.  In 1922, another convention was drafted that excluded the sensitive provisions of port-use and tariffs, and Canada and the United States signed the Convention for the Preservation of the Halibut Fishery of the Northern Pacific Ocean on March 2, 1923.  In the past, Canada and Great Britain both signed treaties that involved Canada, but Canada contended that it alone should sign the Halibut Convention since it dealt with domestic matters.  Great Britain preferred to retain this right but finally agreed that the Dominion of Canada could sign on behalf of His Majesty.  This symbolic act was a first for Canada as a member of the British Commonwealth and for Commonwealth nations of the British Empire.  The treaty of 1923 was also noteworthy in that it was the first treaty to be concluded anywhere for the conservation of a depleted deep-sea fishery.

The Convention went into effect on exchange of ratifications on October 23, 1924.  It provided for a 3-month closed season during the winter and for regulations concerning halibut caught incidentally during the closed season.  The Convention also created an International Fisheries Commission of four members.  Each country was to pay the expenses of its two Commissioners, but expenses of the Commission and its staff were to be shared equally by the contracting parties.  The Commission was charged with studying the life history of halibut and with recommending regulations for the preservation and development of the fishery.

[American version] [Canadian version] 
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