Over the past 2000 years the international community has lived by a customary law of sea fisheries. Some custom has favoured a freedom of fishing approach, while other custom has attempted a theoretical and/or practical control of the industry. Only in the twentieth century has there been concern with attempting to reach a universally accepted code of regulation for fisheries. This has been part of a broader movement towards codifying the whole law of the sea. The 1982 United Nations Law of the Sea Convention (hereafter referred to as the 1982 Convention) represents the attainment of that goal.
The 1982 Convention came into effect on the 16th November 1994. It deals with a comprehensive range of subjects contained in 320 articles, plus nine annexes. The Convention deals with subjects that have not been comprehensively raised before in international law. Such subjects include, inter alia, the exclusive economic zone (EEZ), the rights and jurisdiction of the coastal State, conservation and management of the living resources of the high seas, maximum sustainable yield (hereafter referred to as MSY) and optimum utilisation, and the establishment of regional fishery bodies (hereinafter referred to as RFBs) for the conservation and management of transboundary and highly migratory stocks.
Despite its magnanimous principles of conservation and environmental protection, the negotiation of the 1982 Convention could not change the fact that by the time it came into force in 1994, some 70 percent of the world’s marine capture fisheries were fully exploited, over-exploited or in a state of recovery. In the interests of food security and the contribution made to feeding an increasing global population by the fishery sector, better management of marine capture fisheries had to be addressed.
Throughout the 1990s the international community made several attempts to enhance and develop the legal framework for fisheries management described in the 1982 Convention. Such negotiations have included the 1992 Rio Declaration on Environment and Development (Rio Declaration) and Agenda 21: The United Nations Programme of Action (Agenda 21), adopted by the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development (UNCED), the 1993 Agreement to Promote Compliance with International Conservation and Measurement Measures by Fishing Vessels on the High Seas (Compliance Agreement), the 1995 Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries (Code of Conduct); the 1995 Rome Consensus on World Fisheries, and the 1995 Agreement for the Implementation of the Provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 10 December 1982 Relating to the Conservation and Management of Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks (UN Fish Stocks Agreement), and the 1995 Kyoto Declaration and Plan of Action on the Sustainable Contribution of Fisheries to Food Security.
PurposeThe purpose of this report is to examine the extent to which the 1982 Convention, and the above mentioned 1990s agreements for fisheries, have or have not, been implemented by RFBs. The report is a review and analysis of recent steps taken, and measures implemented, by RFBs to comply with the current international legal regime for fisheries.
CoverageThe 28 RFBs discussed in the Report represent both FAO and non-FAO bodies, from a wide geographic base. The FAO bodies are:
The non-FAO bodies are:
The report is divided into five chapters.
The introductory first chapter provides an outline for, and the significance of, the report.
Chapter II examines the evolution of the contemporary legal regime relating to international fisheries. This requires an analysis of the fishery related provisions within the 1982 Convention, plus a description of those subsequent international conventions and instruments which have developed the fisheries provisions of the 1982 Convention. Specific reference is given to: Agenda 21, the Compliance Agreement, the Code of Conduct, the UN Fish Stocks Agreement, the Rome Consensus on World Fisheries, and the Kyoto Declaration and Plan of Action on the Sustainable Contribution of Fisheries to Food Security.
Of particular relevance to this report, Chapter II notes the provisions within the international conventions and instruments that describe an obligation and/or a role for RFBs in the conservation and management of marine capture fisheries.
Chapter III considers the modern evolution, philosophy and purpose of RFBs from the 1902 establishment of ICES. With regard to RFBs discussed in this report, this chapter describes the following information for each body:
The information for this chapter has been based partly on correspondence received directly from the RFBs, plus RFB Annual Reports and FAO publications, where appropriate.
Chapter IV combines the legal framework data of Chapter II and the RFB descriptions of Chapter III in an evaluation of the contemporary fishery management practices of RFBs. Specifically, those subjects which have been addressed by the 1990s fisheries instruments, and described in Chapter II, including fleet capacity, fishing gear, use of vessel monitoring systems (VMS), application of the precautionary approach, and improved data collection and dissemination, are used as the means for evaluating the extent to which RFBs have taken steps, or not taken steps, to enhance fisheries management. This evaluation is again based on information provided by RFBs and information from other published sources.
Chapter V concludes and summarises the report.
