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Moratorium I Momentum I Recent
Action I Enforcement I Duration I RFMOs I Six
Reasons
Save the High Seas: Moratorium
RFMOs
The management of fisheries on the high seas by regional fishery management organizations (RFMOs) is highly fragmented and inconsistent. The vast majority of the oceans beyond national jurisdiction are not covered by an RFMO — in the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, the Central Atlantic and Southwest Atlantic Ocean, bottom trawl fishing on the high seas is completely unregulated. Where RFMOs do exist, only one taken steps to regulate bottom trawling impacts on deep sea biodiversity. RFMOs are focused mainly on the conservation and sustainable use of fisheries resources — not on the protection of ecosystems and biodiversity. Establishing RFMOs that could regulate bottom fisheries in all areas, then ensuring that all countries involved in deep-water fishing abide by the RFMO's regulations, is a long-term process. In the meantime, urgent United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) action is required to protect deep-sea species and ecosystems.
There are currently some 30 regional fisheries bodies worldwide. Most of these bodies have extremely limited authority and, in essence, can only provide advice to member states. Some — known as regional fishery management organizations (RFMOs) (5) — theoretically have the authority and the technical capacity to assess the status of fish stocks of commercial value within their area of jurisdiction, to set limits on catch quantities and the number of vessels allowed to fish, and to conduct inspections and/or regulate the types of gear that can be used. In reality, however, most RFMOs only regulate the fishing of particular species, such as tunas, salmon and halibut.
The management of fisheries on the high seas by RFMOs is highly fragmented and inconsistent. For example, any bottom trawl fishing on the high seas in the Pacific Ocean, the Indian Ocean, the Central Atlantic and Southwest Atlantic Ocean is not covered by a regional management organization and, as such, constitutes unregulated high seas fishing.
The vast majority of RFMOs lack the legal competence to impose restrictions on high seas bottom trawl fishing, let alone to protect the ecosystem as a whole within their areas of jurisdiction. And even those RFMOs that do have the necessary authority can only control the practices of vessels flagged by member states.
Furthermore, in those few high seas areas where such RFMOs exist — the North Atlantic Ocean, the Southeast Atlantic Ocean, the Southern Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea — only the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) has comprehensive measures to regulate bottom trawl fisheries for the impacts on deep-sea species on the high seas.
Indeed, in the North Atlantic, the failure of the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO) and the North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC) to regulate the impact of bottom trawl fishing on deep-sea ecosystems is a long-standing failure of the past four decades or more. Only in November 2004 did NEAFC take steps to protect deep sea sites from destructive fishing practices through its decision to close four seamounts and a section of the mid-Atlantic Ridge from all fishing for three years, while declining to close two larger and more important areas.
In February 2005, the General Fisheries Council of the Mediterranean took the unprecedented step of banning bottom trawling in the entire Mediterranean at depths below 1,000 meters to keep it from expanding into the still untouched and unstudied depths. However, no measures were taken to regulate bottom trawling in shallower water.
The South East Atlantic Fisheries Organization has yet to regulate any deep-sea bottom trawl fisheries as it has only recently entered into force and its Commission and related infrastructure have yet to be fully established.
Establishing RFMOs that could regulate bottom fisheries in all areas, then ensuring that all countries involved in deep-water fishing abide by the RFMO's regulations, is a long-term process. In the meantime, urgent United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) action is required to protect deep-sea species and ecosystems and the interests of the international community as a whole from the most immediate threat to deep-sea biodiversity at hand — bottom trawl fishing on the high seas.
Notes:
(5) For a list of RFMOs go to: http://www.fao.org/fi/body/body.asp
More information:
25 Oct 2004
A Net With Holes - The Regional Fisheries Management System
pdf; 4 pages; 505 KB
English | English US standard
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