4. One of the reasons for calling for a thorough re-examination of the Law of the Sea (LOS) a decade or more ago was the concern with the depletion of many fish stocks, and with the difficulties in dealing with this under the current international regime. The new Convention provides countries with the opportunities, and also the responsibilities, to manage fisheries, especially in the national extended economic zones (EEZs). Without management, resources can be threatened, the amount and stability of fish supplies reduced, and countries can fail to achieve the considerable economic and social benefits that can come from healthy fishery industries and fishing communities. At the same time all management, in the sense of one form or another of government intervention, has some costs, which tend to increase with the amount and complexity of the intervention. There must, therefore, be a favourable balance between the costs and benefits of any proposed management. This balance will vary with the state of development of the country and of the specific fishery. There may even be some cases where conditions, e.g., small size of the fishery, and difficulties of intervention, may mean that a management decision by the Government not to attempt to regulate fishing effort would be justifiable.
5. Participants in the Consultation had been chosen on the basis of their experience in successful and unsuccessful regulation of effort. These experiences had inevitably been predominantly in the developed countries in the North Atlantic and the North Pacific where over-capacity has been a crucial problem for the last twenty years or so. It was recognized that having identified the factors of success and failure in developed countries further studies and consultations were necessary to evaluate the possibility of transfer of these experiences into the terms of specific advice to individual developing countries. There was however a considerable range of conditions within countries, and it was believed that these subsequent discussions would be best handled at the regional (e.g. south-east Asia, Latin America) level as already planned, for instance, in the Committee for the Development of Fisheries in the Central-Eastern Atlantic (CECAF) in 1983.
6. The Consultation reviewed the general objectives of fishery management and the criteria that might be used in evaluating different systems. It was emphasized that there must be an understanding of the objectives before starting to manage but that this need not require explicit and detailed specification of the objectives. Indeed there might be advantages initially in leaving the statement of objectives in general terms. There are a variety of objectives that might be considered. These cannot always be achieved simultaneously and it may be desirable for the decisions between objectives to be taken over time as part of the regular management process.
7. It was agreed that objectives could be placed in three groups - maintaining the resources, economic performance, and equity (or social needs). These could be used as criteria in judging the performance of different management schemes, but in addition the transaction costs (the costs of research, administration and enforcement) should also be taken into account. That is, the cost of achieving the mix of objectives (cost/benefit) is an integral part of the iterative process of setting and refining objectives. It is recognized that quantification of benefits is sometimes difficult. But it is essential to the decisions on amount, methods and complexity of regulation.
8. The Consultation recognized that attaining maximum rent normally does not seem to be the main objective for the fishery management. Even when accepting this, it should however be stressed that objectives concerning economic efficiency should not be omitted. If they are ignored, the long-term effect would be that the fishery sector develops to be a burden for the society rather than the source of secure work places and food supply. The criteria used to determine economic efficiency will obviously vary from country to country owing to employment needs, scarcity of fuel and other special conditions.
9. All management measures affect fishermen. Therefore the interests and views of the fishermen must be taken into account. The over-whelming majority of fishermen are small-scale fishermen, who account for a high proportion of the world's total fish production. Most of these fishermen live in communities with long traditions of fishing. These communities have evolved complex patterns of competition and cooperation, which must be taken into account in any management scheme. If fishermen are convinced that regulations are necessary and fair they are more likely to comply with them. On the other hand, fishermen will not obey laws they do not respect, and attempts to enforce such laws will face immense difficulties.
10. It was suggested that small-scale artisanal fisheries pose much less threat to the resources than modern industrial fisheries. This is certainly true of traditional fisheries, which may have reached a balance between man and the resource over a long period. However, with the growth of population, better marketing and the spread of new technology (outboard motors, synthetic nets), many artisanal fisheries are putting greater demands on the resources. It might be unfair to blame artisanal fisheries for depletion of resources, but it would be equally wrong to believe that these fisheries were free of the management problems besetting many of the industrial fisheries of the world.
11. The processing and marketing sector plays a vital role in all fisheries, but one that has been often neglected in considering fishery management. This usually focusses on the catching side. As a result the needs of the processors-for an even and predictable supply of fish, with emphasis on quality, and catching at times and places when quality is best - have been neglected. As a result the regulations can result in the total value of the catch - either at first sale or to the ultimate consumers - being much less than it might have been.
