The Contracting Parties,

RECALLING the Agreed Measures for the Conservation of Antarctic Fauna and Flora, adopted under the Antarctic Treaty signed at Washington on 1 December 1959;

RECOGNIZING the general concern about the vulnerability of Antarctic seals to commercial exploitation and the consequent need for effective conservation measures;

RECOGNIZING that the stocks of Antarctic seals are an important living resource in the marine environment which requires an international agreement for its effective conservation;

RECOGNIZING that this resource should not be depleted by over-exploitation, and hence that any harvesting should be regulated so as not to exceed the levels of the optimum sustainable yield;

RECOGNIZING that in order to improve scientific knowledge and so place exploitation on a rational basis, every effort should be made both to encourage biological and other research on Antarctic seal populations and to gain information from such research and from the statistics of future sealing operations, so that further suitable regulations may be formulated;

NOTING that the Scientific Committee on Antarctic Research of the International Council of Scientific Unions (SCAR) is willing to carry out the tasks requested of it in this Convention;

DESIRING to promote and achieve the objectives of protection, scientific study and rational use of Antarctic seals, and to maintain a satisfactory balance within the ecological system,

HAVE AGREED as follows:

Article 1

SCOPE

1. This Convention applies to the seas south of 60° South Latitude, in respect of which the Contracting Parties affirm the provisions of Article IV of the Antarctic Treaty.