year.

Mr. John Barnes, Government's director of Agriculture and Fisheries, said he received inquiries from Americans about obtaining licences while attending the meeting of the advisory committee to the United States section of the International Convention for the Conservation of Atlantic Tuna in Baltimore this week.

The meeting was a prelude to this week's ICCAT meeting in Madrid, which Mr.

Barnes will also attend.

Bermuda has yet to grant licences to foreign vessels wishing to fish inside the Island's 200-mile protected area in 1995. Because most Bermudian fishermen work close to the reef line, Environment Minister the Hon. Gerald Simons has said that the United Nations Law of the Sea requires Government to license a few foreign vessels or lose control over its fishing area.

Last year, Canadian and Taiwanese vessels were licensed. But the Canadian boats were forced to go home early after their Government determined that the blue fin tuna and swordfish they caught near Bermuda would be subtracted from the Canadian quotas for those fish.

While the Taiwanese vessels remain at sea, the Canadians came into port and spent money in Bermuda.

If American fishing boats were licensed, "they would fish under the basic same terms and conditions as the Canadians,'' Mr. Barnes said. "There would probably be fewer problems, because a lot of their problems came from the closure of their (east coast) fishery.'' And the Americans could spend money on the Island by hiring local agents and using Bermuda as "a trans-shipment point.'' "You can put fish on the plane here and it would be in Tokyo in 24 hours,'' Mr. Barnes said.

Japan is by far the largest market for blue fin tuna.

Asked if blue fin tuna the Americans caught near Bermuda would be taken from their ICCAT quota, Mr. Barnes said: "The rule is the fish are ascribed to the country whose flag vessel caught the fish.'' The Americans are due to have their blue fin quota cut at ICCAT, but the US will use a new study to push for the same quota as this year, if not an increase, he said. Evidence shows there are plenty of blue fin tuna in the western Atlantic and the Americans believe they can fill their quota of 160 metric tonnes in four days, he said.

Meanwhile the US and Canada are expected to battle over swordfish at the ICCAT annual meeting.

The two countries are at odds over whether Canada has been maintaining its swordfish fishery at "recent levels,'' as required by ICCAT. It is likely ICCAT will add a swordfish quota to the existing quota on blue fin tuna, he said.

And a quota on yellow fin tuna, which would also affect Bermuda, is likely to be next, he said.

Bermuda has sought membership in ICCAT. An answer is not expected at next week's meeting. Mr. Barnes said it is important for Bermuda to belong to ICCAT so it gets a share of new fishing quotas which will one day affect all nations.