Regional Fishery Organizations Research Articles

Перспективы правовых форм сотрудничества Российской Федерации с региональными рыбохозяйственными организациями и органами, созданными в рамках ФАО

The article considers the prospects for legal forms of cooperation between the Russian Federation and regional fisheries management organizations and regional fishery bodies established under the auspices of the FAO. The main differences in the legal status of such regional organizations and bodies are analyzed in detail. Proposals for the development of cooperation between the Russian Federation and some regional fishery organizations and bodies have been formulated.

The state's obligation to protect highly migratory species according to the 1982 law of the sea convention

Highly Migratory Species are one of the fish resources legally protected according to the UNCLOS 1982. This protection is carried out to ensure adequate world fish stocks and the sustainability of these fish resources. Internationally, the efforts to protect it are the obligation of all countries. This study examines the state’s commitment to preserving these Highly Migratory Species. This research is normative juridical research that utilizes secondary data, including primary, secondary, and tertiary legal materials using qualitative analysis. The study results show that several international legal instruments complement the provisions of the UNCLOS 1982, which regulates the state’s obligations to protect Highly Migratory Species in a concrete way, i.e., related to management and conservation. Some regional fisheries organizations have been formed to implement the state’s obligation to cooperate in managing and protecting Highly Migratory Species in each specific regulated area.

Characteristics of fishery in open sea and conventional areas of the World ocean in 2020 according to satellite monitoring data and prospects for the development of the Russian fishery in these areas

One of the strategic goals of the Russian fishing industry in modern conditions is to expand the activities of the fishing fleet to the open ocean areas. Based on modern data from satellite monitoring of fishing vessels in the World Ocean for 2020, the paper provides a characteristic of the state of oceanic fisheries. The most active fishing zones in the open part of the World Ocean outside the exclusive economic zones of coastal states, which may be of interest for the development of domestic oceanic fishing, have been identified and described. The most active fishing takes place in the open areas of the World Ocean, which are not covered by the regulation of regional fisheries organizations, and especially active is the fishing for species that are not regulated by them. First of all, squid are such commercial species. Tunas and other pelagic predators are also promising species in open areas of the World Ocean. The main types of fishing vessels in the open ocean are longline fishing vessels, jigging vessels and purse seiners. The information provided will be in demand when organizing the fishing of biological resources in areas beyond national jurisdiction, as well as preparing exploratory research expeditions to promising fishing areas.

The Practice of Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries on the High Seas: Challenges and Suggestions

Since the 1990s, the Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries (EAF) has developed rapidly and become an important method of high seas fishery management. The EAF has already been practiced by many Regional Fisheries Management Organizations. The practice of the approach in the management of high seas fisheries faces numerous challenges, such as constraints by the approach, increasing stakeholders affecting the implementation of the EAF, inconsistency with political ocean boundaries, resistance from vested interests, and the threat of Illegal, Unreported, Unregulated fishing. In order to deal with the dilemma faced by EAF, ideas are proposed as follows, building a sense of maritime community with a shared future, advancing the approach by explicating definition, objectives, and priorities, strengthening coordination and cooperation between the states and regional fisheries organizations, adopting area-based management tools with biogeographical criteria, and enhancing the level of stakeholders’ participation.

국가관할권 이원지역의 해양생물다양성(BBNJ) 국제문서에 대한 논의 동향 및 주요 쟁점에 관한 연구

Marine biodiversity in the area beyond national jurisdiction(hereafter ‘BBNJ’) refers to biodiversity that exists in sea areas such as high seas or the area that are not under national jurisdiction. Since 2018, the United Nations has held intergovernmental conferences to elaborate the text of an international legally binding instrument under the United Nations Convention on the Law of Sea on the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction, with a view to developing the instrument as soon as possible. The BBNJ international instrument cannot but be paid attention as an international agreement that shakes the foundation of the principle of freedom of high seas, which has been firmly maintained since the adoption of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea in 1982.<BR> The work on BBNJ international documents is currently progressing rapidly. International non-governmental organizations, such as the European Union, developing countries, IUCN, and the WNF, which are participating in intergovernmental conferences, are urging the establishment of the BBNJ international instrument as soon as possible. In addition, international organizations such as the International Maritime Organization, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, regional fisheries organizations and the Convention on Biological Diversity also pledged active participation and cooperation in the process of enacting the Convention. Therefore, BBNJ international instrument are expected to be enacted sooner or later.<BR> If the BBNJ international document is officially adopted, it can have a significant impact on various marine activities and related industries in the high seas, such as deep-sea fishing, international shipping, and ocean research in Korea. In preparation for this, this paper will first look at the discussion trends of BBNJ international documents. Next, I would like to examine the main issues of the BBNJ international document. Finally, based on these contents, I would like to derive implications for protecting domestic maritime activities and related industries.

Compliance Evaluation and Sustainable Resource Management in the CCAMLR

Regional fisheries organisations globally are feeling the impacts of non-compliant behaviour by both contracting and non-contracting parties. Non-compliance arising from activities such as illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, or failures by flag states to appropriately report the activities of their vessels, has resulted in damage to the environment and damage to the performance of regional fisheries management organisations themselves. As a result, many of these organisations are adopting and implementing a relatively new mechanism to tackle non-compliance: the compliance evaluation procedure. This article demonstrates that by adopting a compliance evaluation procedure, regional fisheries organisations are better placed to identify and address non-compliance in an effort to improve compliance with their conservation measures. It analyses in detail the procedure adopted by one particular organisation, the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR), to suggest that implementation of their procedure has improved transparency, accountability and enforcement. It is argued that the CCAMLR compliance evaluation procedure represents a model for other polar and high seas areas to promote sustainable, and responsible, fishing practices globally.

Regional fisheries organizations and sustainable development goals 13 and 14: Insights from stakeholders

The importance of the oceans is highlighted by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through SDG 14, that aims to conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable use. Regional Fisheries Organizations (RFOs) play a key role in managing fisheries on the high seas and therefore are vital for supporting the successful implementation of SDG 14. SDG 14 is intrinsically linked with SDG 13 (the need to take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts). As biophysical impacts arise from human-induced climate change affect oceans, and fisheries therein, it is important that RFOs take account of such impacts on the management of fisheries. This paper examines the engagement of RFOs with SDG 14 and climate change through an analysis of interviews with 36 RFO stakeholders. The results show that even though there is consensus concerning the importance of climate change and SDG 14, most of the RFOs are not directly engaging with these two SDGs. However, it was stated that the work done by RFOs, to end overfishing, positively contributes to the realization of climate change and SDG 14, although the actions taken by RFOs need to increase in scale and speed if they are to fulfil their responsibility to effectively manage human impacts on ocean resources. Furthermore, member countries play a key role in supporting or resisting progress. This paper contributes to a gap in the literature concerning current perceptions of stakeholders of the issues RFOs are facing concerning the SDG 14 and climate change.

Implementation of the UNCLOS 1982 in Utilization of Highly Migratory Species By Indonesia

Indonesia is one of the producers of tuna and tuna species (tuna, skipjack, and mackerel tuna), which are increasing every year. Its geographical location and area of its many Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) bordering many neighboring countries, requires Indonesia to implement the CLS 1982 provisions on far-migratory fish. In this connection, Indonesia implements two forms. Firstly, in the form of legislation, which Indonesia has issued about 17 regulations, starting from the level of the Law to the Ministerial Regulation. Secondly, Indonesia has been active as a member of regional fisheries organizations whose territory borders on the Indonesian EEZ. Consequently, from the issuance of this Ministerial Regulation, Indonesia must carry out fisheries monitoring on board, to meet the higher quality data needs. So that Indonesia is faced with carrying out monitoring on fishing vessels operating in the convention area of the RFMOs, namely the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission, the Commission for Southern Blue Fin Tuna Conservation, and the Central and Western Pacific Fisheries Commission. In order to optimize this implementation, Indonesia needs to prepare officials, facilities, and infrastructure that can support the compliance and enforcement of legislation that has been issued. Indonesia should immediately formulate fisheries policies in the high seas outside the Indonesian EEZ, which involve and benefit Indonesian fishermen.

Competition or cooperation in transboundary fish stocks management: Insight from a dynamical model

An idealized system of a shared fish stock associated with different exclusive economic zones (EEZ) is modelled. Parameters were estimated for the case of the small pelagic fisheries shared between Southern Morocco, Mauritania and the Senegambia. Two models of fishing effort distribution were explored. The first one considers independent national fisheries in each EEZ, with a cost per unit of fishing effort that depends on local fishery policy. The second one considers the case of a fully cooperative fishery performed by an international fleet freely moving across the borders. Both models are based on a set of six ordinary differential equations describing the time evolution of the fish biomass and the fishing effort. We take advantage of the two time scales to obtain a reduced model governing the total fish biomass of the system and fishing efforts in each zone. At the fast equilibrium, the fish distribution follows the ideal free distribution according to the carrying capacity in each area. Different equilibria can be reached according to management choices. When fishing fleets are independent and national fishery policies are not harmonized, in the general case, competition leads after a few decades to a scenario where only one fishery remains sustainable. In the case of sub-regional agreement acting on the adjustment of cost per unit of fishing effort in each EEZ, we found that a large number of equilibria exists. In this last case the initial distribution of fishing effort strongly impact the optimal equilibrium that can be reached. Lastly, the country with the highest carrying capacity density may get less landings when collaborating with other countries than if it minimises its fishing costs. The second fully cooperative model shows that a single international fishing fleet moving freely in the fishing areas leads to a sustainable equilibrium. Such findings should foster regional fisheries organizations to get potential new ways for neighbouring fish stock management.

Fifty years of dart tag recoveries for tropical tuna: A global comparison of results for the western Pacific, eastern Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian Oceans

Over the last 50 years, numerous dart tagging programs have been conducted on tropical tunas worldwide. Through these programs more than 1.4million tunas have been tagged across the Pacific, Atlantic, and, most recently, Indian Oceans with the majority of individuals tagged being skipjack (Katsuwonus pelamis, 858,000 individuals) and yellowfin tuna (Thunnus albacares, 360,000 individuals). The subsequent recovery of 173,574 tagged tunas (skipjack: 94,835, yellowfin: 49,079, and bigeye, Thunnus obesus: 29,660) presents a significant opportunity to obtain a wide range of scientific results. In this paper, we used recovery data from a variety of programs to compare the growth rates from the period between tagging and recovery of three tropical tuna species from four oceanic regions. We also analyzed the maximum time durations between tagging and recovery events as an indication of each species’ longevity, as well as apparent movement patterns and distances traveled by the tuna. Collectively, these comparisons revealed major similarities between tropical tuna species of the basic biological parameters studied. In some instances, our analysis also revealed that the same species show major differences between areas. In addition, this paper also examines the current interest in conducting large-scale, simultaneous tagging of the three tropical tuna species and highlights the importance of improving the quality of recovery data. In particular, there need is paramount to increase the percentage of recoveries that have been fully validated in terms of the fishing zone, recovery date, length and sex of the tagged tunas. Our assessment suggests that large-scale, multi-species tagging programs should become a routine scientific obligation for all tuna regional fisheries organizations, as they are necessary in providing the basic parameters of all stock assessment models.

A Study on the Status and Role of Regional Fishery Organizations in a Changing International Fishery Law Setting

A Study on the Status and Role of Regional Fishery Organizations in a Changing International Fishery Law Setting

The black scabbardfish (&lt;i&gt;Aphanopus carbo&lt;/i&gt; Lowe, 1839) fisheries from the Portuguese mainland and Madeira Island

For several decades, the black scabbardfish ( Aphanopus carbo , Lowe 1839) has been a valuable resource for fishing communities in Madeira and more recently for those in mainland Portugal. The evaluation of the species’ exploitation status was conducted only in the late 20th century and separated for the two areas of the Portuguese Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). Nowadays, species stock assessment studies are usually conducted in the framework of scientific working groups from regional fisheries organizations: ICES analyses data from the fishery operating in continental waters, whereas CECAF deals with the data pertaining to the Madeiran fishery. This paper presents the first attempt to combine the information available from the two longline fisheries targeting black scabbardfish in Portuguese waters in one single analysis. A description of the two fleets’ technical characteristics was conducted and a unique model was developed for the standardization of the fishing effort aimed at the species in the Portuguese EEZ. From this model, weekly landings-per-unit-effort time series were estimated by region for the period 2005-2007 and compared using a non-parametric statistical test. Percentages of discarded species, in number and weight, were calculated and reveal consistently low figures. These discards seem to depend on the number of hooks, soaking time and depth.

Territorialisation processes in fisheries management

The fishing sector faces three big challenges: preservation of resources, resource management and control mechanisms, and competitiveness of the economic fishing sector and its social and territorial effects. Fisheries legislation searches for the principles of good governability; it aims at contributing to responsible fishing; and it wants to be considered compatible with a long-term global exploitation system of resources. In short, it tries to guarantee the long-term viability of the fishing sector. Access to fishing resources and the processes to adapt fishing capacities to the potentialities of stocks constitute the maximum priority with regard to fisheries regulation. However, its implementation underlines the emergence of several trends: the discrimination of some fishing fleets and the territorialisation of some fisheries. This paper deals with the consequences of this territorialisation, analysing the implementation of Regional Fisheries Organisations, as well as their formation and performances.

Countermeasures and High Seas Fisheries Enforcement

Despite adoption by Regional Fisheries Organisations of numerous measures aimed at deterring, preventing and eliminating illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, IUU fishing by vessels flagged in both member and non-member states continues. None of the reciprocal boarding and inspection schemes adopted by RFOs provides for a positive right of arrest, detention or prosecution by a non-flag state in the event the flag states fails or refuses to take such action itself. The law of countermeasures may, however, provide legal justification for at-sea measures including boarding, inspection and possibly arrest and prosecution by members of RFOs against non-flag vessels of both member and non-member states. Although by nature an exceptional remedy, where the criteria discussed in this article are fulfilled, countermeasures in the form of at-sea enforcement may be an effective, and legal, tool in the fight against IUU fishing.

Rethinking the principle of abstention: the North Pacific and beyond

Abstract While the principle of abstention was established as part of the International North Pacific Fishery Convention in 1952, it was generally overlooked for several decades afterwards. The 1995 Straddling Stocks Agreement says that states parties to the Agreement enjoy a right to access to high seas fishery resources, but on the condition that they respect existing regional conservation and management measures. This Agreement also introduces the concept of a precautionary approach. The end result is that the 1995 Agreement fulfilled the same intent of the original 1952 principle of abstention—that is, it places some kinds of restrictions on high seas fishing. The degree of restrictions depends on the activities and policies of new regional fishery organizations like WCPFC and so on. Even if the new version of the principle of abstention succeeds in excluding distant fishing states from high seas, it will do little to solve the larger problems facing today's ocean fishery resources.

Implementing high seas biodiversity conservation: global geopolitical considerations

Abstract This article will consider the broad geopolitical considerations in measures towards biodiversity conservation and governance of high seas areas. Traditionally, international law has provided for jurisdiction based upon flag State in high seas areas, and States have shown themselves reluctant to depart from this model. International organisations with responsibility for high seas living resource management have proven, in many cases, to be of limited utility in the sustainable management of high seas resources. This traditional norm of flag State jurisdiction, while still dominant, is now being joined by the use of supra-national management in the context of regional fisheries organisations under the United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement. Part of the reason for this limited effectiveness is the focus of individual States on national interest, which may undermine international cooperation. The paper explores what mechanisms exist within international law that would permit a more effective management of high seas biodiversity conservation, and how these may be used to combat the erosion of the effectiveness of measures by individual State interests. Recognition of geopolitical factors that undermine cooperation in biodiversity conservation, and active efforts to address these matters, will prove essential in the establishment of a successful regime for high seas areas.

Canada and Regional Fisheries Organizations: Implementing the UN Fish Stocks Agreement

Canada is a strong supporter of the United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement. Whether Canada's support is matched by its actions in strengthening regional fisheries organizations and arrangements dealing with straddling and highly migratory fish stocks is thus worthy of investigation. This contribution examines Canadian activities within regional fisheries organizations with particular reference to implementation of the precautionary and ecosystem approaches and the issue of enforcement of conservation and management measures. Although Canadian actions appear generally to be furthering implementation of the Agreement, comprehensive integration of words and deeds remains to be achieved.

Regional Fishery Organizations: How and Why Organizational Diversity Matters

Regional fishery organizations are increasingly being viewed as "vehicles of good governance" created to secure the sustainable development of international fisheries. These political expectations have not been followed by analytical refinement of how to explain and understand their formation, roles, objectives, institutional setups, or efficiency. This article provides a conceptual discussion of regional fishery organizations and introduces an organizational typology as a basis for their study. Thus, an analytical distinction is made between regional fisheries management organizations, regional coordination and development organizations and scientific research organizations. This typology and the evolution of the Law of the Sea, from an open access to the exclusive economic zone regime, are used to analyze the institutional arrangements of regional fishery organizations.

The management of high seas fisheries

The intergovernmental United Nations Conference on Highly Migratory and Straddling Stocks, initiated in 1993 and finished in 1995, addressed the conservation and management of fishery resources located both within the coastal state 200 mile Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) and the adjacent high seas. These types of marine resources continue to be a source for international conflicts and debates. The original United Nations Law of the Sea of 1982 failed to address transboundary fisheries in a proper way. In particular, the agreement did not recognize the emergence of the complicated “straddling stock” issue. In the new United Nations Law of the Sea agreement of 1995, a consensus was reached that the management of the straddling and highly migratory fish stocks should be carried out through regional fisheries management organizations. We present a review of the straddling stock issues in the international agreement emerging from the negotiations within the United Nations. The review is contrasted with and clarified by game theoretic analyses. We also discuss one international fishery exemplifying the case, the Norwegian spring‐spawning herring. The main conclusion is that the local problems, faced during the stage of setting up regional fisheries organizations for the management of straddling and highly migratory fish stocks, are expected to be much more complicated and difficult to solve as compared to the cases of “shared fish stocks”. In the current paper, we present two reasons for this increased complexity. The first is the larger number of players as compared to the case of “shared fish stocks” and the second is the possibility of new members entering the regional fisheries organizations.

The Law of the Sea and Regional Fisheries Organisations

AbstractUnderlying the 1995 UN Straddling Stocks Agreement was the central notion that straddling and highly migratory fish stocks could best be managed through regional (particularly newly formed) institutions. This article explores a number of the constraints and possibilities for the development of institutions on a wider scale. Amongst these are the problems associated with transforming FAO Article VI institutions into executive management organisations. Secondly, multi-party regional agreements require a mutually acceptable distribution of benefits and costs. Matching those elements can be lengthy and complex, especially in those instances in which external parties are the principal benefactors and weak coastal states have no direct distant water fishing interest or capability. New institutions, for this reason, have tended to be responsible for single species such as tuna. There is some risk accordingly that straddling fish stocks may receive less institutional attention. Other important issues centre on the role of non-parties, and disputes between organisations over competence to manage species.