International Fisheries Policy
As
stocks decline and fishing pressure increases, fishery management schemes
have changed, throughout the world. Fishing fleets have become extremely
efficient and mobile, resulting in severe over harvesting of what was
once thought to be an inexhaustible resource. Inshore waters (adjacent
to the coastline) tend to be the most productive fishing grounds, as there
is upwelling of nutrient rich waters in this zone. Following the Second
World War, advanced technology allowed foreign fishing vessels to move
from their home ports to the most productive fishing areas of other countries,
causing increased fishing pressure and conflicts over natural resources.
As resource rich countries began to see fish stocks decline from this
increase in foreign fishing pressure, they explored various management
schemes to protect their coastal waters. As early as 1950 Peru, Chile
and Ecuador claimed national sovereignty over a 200 nautical mile zone
off of their coastlines which was incorporated in the Santiago Declaration
of 1952 and backed by other Latin American countries in the Montevideo
and Lima Declarations of 1970 (United
Nations).
Iceland faced similar pressures from foreign vessels and witnessed one-third of total catch being taken by foreign fishing vessels in 1960. To prevent overexploitation of North-Atlantic Cod and to preserve the national economy, which was primarily dependent on fish resources, Iceland extended its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) from 50 miles in 1972, to 200 miles in 1975. This controversial policy resulted in the United Kingdom sending Navy ships to protect British fishing vessels in a so-called "cod-war". A report released by the Marine Resources Council in October of 1975 confirmed that the condition of cod stock was "poor" and was in danger of a dramatic collapse (Eythorsson).
As coastal States throughout the world implemented national legislation protecting their inshore waters from foreign fishing vessels, the United Nations responded with the adoption of the Convention on the Law of the Sea in 1982. This international agreement gave exclusive management rights to coastal States of waters, and associated resources, within 200 nautical miles from their coastline. This ultimately led to jurisdiction of 38 million square nautical miles of ocean, comprising 90 percent of the world's marine fisheries (United Nations, FAO). Because fish are ultimately a common resource, provisions were included in the agreement that require responsible utilization of fish stocks by optimizing use without risking overfishing. Optimal use of fish stocks is to be determined by each coastal State in the form of a total allowable catch (TAC) as determined by stock assessments (United Nations). Since the adoption of the agreement, many fish stocks have declined worldwide, but the Convention on the Law of the Seas is still considered to be a highly successful international agreement, because it comprehensively regulates all aspects of ocean resources and uses. In fact, upon signing, it was described by the United Nations Secretary-General as "Possibly the most significant legal instrument of this century" (United Nations).
Because fish are migratory and tend not to stay within any one country's jurisdictional borders, complimentary provisions have been developed to control transboundary marine species. The United Nations extended the Law of the Sea to control straddling fish stocks and highly migratory fish species in 1996, and this agreement was entered into force in December of 2001. The agreement, establishes detailed minimum international standards for the conservation and management of straddling fish stocks and highly migratory species outside of the EEZ, an area referred to as the high seas. These international standards are then used as recommendations for national conservation and management schemes (Thebaud).
To further reinforce these concepts, the Food
and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations developed
a Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, adopted in 1995, which provides
a necessary framework for international fisheries management, supporting
conservation and addressing social and economic concerns. This voluntary
Code conforms to regulations in the international agreements and provides
guidelines for fisheries managers, interest groups, fisheries organizations,
and non-governmental organizations on how to effectively manage marine
resources. It describes the major constraints associated with fisheries
management, emphasizes the range of data required to make informed decisions,
and suggests mechanisms for collecting and interpreting this data. Fisheries
management is separated into three distinct stages; fisheries policy and
development planning, formulation of management plans and implementation
of management action. The Code suggests tools for implementing each of
these stages including how to make cooperative decisions and agree on
management plans (FAO).
In
part because of the failure of the Convention on the Law of the Sea to
protect declining fish stocks, the language of both FAO's Code of Conduct
and the United Nations Straddling Stocks Agreement incorporates Precautionary
Approach principles. The Precautionary Approach in fisheries is about
using a proactive rather than a reactive approach to fisheries management
and ensuring that conservation constraints are met before other objectives.
Key elements include specifying fishing targets well below safe biological
limits so that targets will be reached and limits will be avoided, reversing
the burden of proof so that scientific uncertainty cannot be used as an
excuse for postponing conservation measures, and using risk-aversion principles
in managing fisheries so that when there is a high level of uncertainty
about stock size or productive capacity, greater caution is used in setting
target catch levels (National
Marine Fisheries Service). While these concepts may seem trivial,
this approach is unique in the fisheries sector where short-term gains
have often taken priority over long-term benefits.
The ecosystems model, which sets aside portions of marine ecosystems,
and restricts fishing in these areas, is an effective way to conform to
the Precautionary Approach in fisheries management. This method protects
critical habitat, preserves key predator-prey relationships, and deals
effectively with uncertainties in ocean dynamics (United
States Global Change Research Program). Ecosystem approaches can be
useful but are just one of the many tools, that fishery managers must
use to effectively sustain fish populations for future generations.