The need to foster rational conservation and management of marine living resources of the high seas has become a matter of considerable international concern. This concern principally stems from the high degree of uncertainty surrounding the exploitation of these resources and the fact that many of them are considered by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) to be fully-exploited if not depleted. This situation has arisen because non-sustainable fishing practices have been used and, in some instances, non-parties to internationally agreed fisheries conservation and management arrangements have operated in management areas and undermined the effectiveness of those arrangements. This has led to resource use conflicts, and the possibility of some States resorting to unilateral measures to try to protect fish stocks that are harvested both within exclusive economic zones (EEZs) and on the high seas.
The 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (1982 Convention) prescribes the rights and obligations of States relating to the exploitation of high seas marine living resources. However, these prescriptions are framed only in general terms. It was thus agreed at the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) that measures were required to more effectively promote the implementation of the 1982 Convention and to ensure that high seas marine living resources were exploited in a rational manner and that fishermen and their respective flag States, operating on the high seas, acted in a responsible and accountable manner.
The 1982 Convention defines EEZ and high seas. Article 55 of this Convention states that the EEZ is "...an area beyond and adjacent to the territorial sea, subject to the specific legal regime established in this Part, under which the rights and jurisdiction of the Coastal State and the rights and freedoms of other States are governed by the relevant provisions of this Convention." High seas, on the other hand, are defined in Article 86 of the 1982 Convention as being "...the seas that are not included in the exclusive economic zone, in the territorial sea or in the internal waters of a State, or in the archipelagic waters of an archipelagic State. ..." It was against the background of these two definitions that discussion and negotiation at the UN Conference on Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks centred with respect to the elaboration of more effective conservation and management arrangements for these two types of fish stocks.
