ABSTRACT
This chapter presents a survey of the forms, origin and background of the current salmon fishing policies and legal position of the United States and Japan. The North Pacific Salmon Fisheries issue is one of true international proportions, involving Japan, the United States and to a lesser extent, Canada. The salmon are a highly, but not completely mobile natural resource which range across existing political boundaries into areas where unambiguous spatial sovereignty is difficult to maintain. Conflicts between national salmon fishing policies have been traditionally adjusted by legal means by international treaties, generally according to the wishes of the dominant power. Salmon involved in the dispute in the North Pacific Ocean are spawned and hatched in Asian and American waters. Commercial exploitation of salmon in Siberia and Alaska began at river mouths along the coasts. The convention obligates the signatory powers to carry out scientific research into all aspects concerned with salmon and their movements on the high seas.
