APPENDIX E. - ABOLITION OF THE INDIAN OCEAN FISHERY COMMISSION AND MERGER OF THE COMMITTEE FOR THE DEVELOPMENT AND MANAGEMENT OF FISHERIES IN THE BAY OF BENGAL WITH THE ASIA-PACIFIC FISHERY COMMISSION

124. The Council considered the Report of the CCLM on this question and adopted the following Resolution:

Resolution 1/116

Abolition of the Indian Ocean Fishery Commission and its Subsidiary Bodies

Approval of the Merger of the Committee for the Development and Management of Fisheries in the Bay of Bengal with the Asia-Pacific Fishery Commission

THE COUNCIL,

Recalling that the Indian Ocean Fishery Commission (IOFC) was established under Article VI.1 of the FAO Constitution by Resolution 2/48 adopted by the Council at its Forty-eighth Session;

Noting that the Committee on Fisheries, at its Twenty-second Session in 1997 agreed that FAO regional fishery bodies “should be reviewed and evaluated in depth by their members on a case by case basis, taking full account of regional and membership differences in determining what measures might be taken to facilitate the strengthening of each body as appropriate”;

Noting that at its Hundred and Twelfth Session in June 1997, the Council, in adopting the report of the Twenty-second Session of the Committee on Fisheries, stressed the need for effective regional fishery organizations and arrangements and agreed that FAO regional fishery bodies should be reviewed and evaluated with a view to strengthening them;

Noting the recommendation by IOFC, at its Eleventh Session, in February 1999, that IOFC be abolished;

Nothing further the wishes expressed by IOFC, at its Eleventh Session, that the Committee for the Development and Management of Fisheries in the Bay of Bengal be merged with the Asia-Pacific Fishery Commission and that the Committee for the Development and Management of Fisheries Resources of the Gulfs and the Committee of the Development and Management of Fisheries in the Southwest Indian Ocean be established as Article XIV bodies under the FAO Constitution;

1. Hereby abolishes the Indian Ocean Fishery Commission together with all its subsidiary bodies;

2. Approves that the functions of the former Committee for the Development and Management of Fisheries in the Bay of Bengal be absorbed by the Asia-Pacific Fishery Commission;

3. Authorizes the Director-General to convene ad hoc meetings of the members of the former Committee for the Development and Management of Fisheries Resources of the Gulfs and the former Committee for the Development and Management of Fisheries in the Southwest Indian Ocean, as required, in order to complete the process of establishment of the new bodies envisages and to take such interim action as may be required regarding the management of the fisheries resources of the areas covered by those former committees pending the formal establishment of the new bodies during the period preceding their formal conversion into Article XIV bodies.