President Bush: Global Fisheries Conservationist

Lost amidst the blizzard of legislation and memorandum (and congressional teenage sex scandals) is this presidential declaration of policy against “destructive fisheries practices.” Bush has placed the administration behind an Australian-led effort at the U.N. General Assembly to ban “bottom fishing” via trawlers, thought to cause serious environmental damage (see the Wapo article here). The General Assembly is poised to consider this ban this week, with countries like China resisting the ban. The U.S. is hardly taking the lead here, but here is one area where the U.S. can’t be accused of ignoring international institutions. It is hard to imagine that a measure supported by the U.S., Canada, Australia, the E.U. and Sigourney Weaver! not garnering enough support for General Assembly approval. But the GA is a funny bunch so we’ll see.