ICCAT: Managing or Documenting?

2009 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 117-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leslie E. Straker
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
Scientific Information ◽  
Fish Stocks ◽  
Current State ◽  
Substantial Progress ◽  
United Nations Convention ◽  
Over Exploitation ◽  
Regional Fisheries Management Organizations ◽  
Effective Conservation ◽  
High Seas

AbstractThe International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT) is one of the oldest regional fisheries management organizations in the business of providing stewardship to the management of high-seas fish stocks. The Commission came into force in 1969 with eight parties and today consists of 45 contracting parties. Notwithstanding nearly 40 years of experience, this organization is also confronted with the problems of over-exploitation; over-capacity; illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing; lack of adequate scientific information; and the continued decline in important high-seas fish stocks.Despite the moribund state of fish stocks in the ICCAT convention area, the organization has made significant progress with respect to the collection and analysis of fisheries information, recommendations to its parties and the dissemination of this information, all key parts of its broader objective. Nonetheless, the organization has failed to make substantial progress with regard to translating a good analysis and documenting process to the effective conservation of tuna and tuna-like species in the Atlantic. That is, the organization has failed to “close the loop” in management. The question therefore becomes, is the ICCAT merely functioning as a “documenting” organization rather than a “management” organization? This study examines the current state of fisheries stocks in the convention area, the extent to which the Commission is meeting its own mandate, and the extent to which the management principles of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and the United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement are being followed by ICCAT.

International Fisheries Law

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Valentin J. Schatz ◽  
Arron N. Honniball
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Law Of The Sea ◽  
Fish Stocks ◽  
United Nations Convention ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Law ◽  
Fisheries Law ◽  
Conservation And Management ◽  
International Fisheries

International fisheries law is a broad field of international law within which significant state practice, instruments, and relevant fora are found at the global, regional, subregional, bilateral, and national level. For the purposes of this bibliography, the analysis of international fisheries law is limited to the law governing marine capture fisheries (other fisheries law definitions may include the regulation of aquaculture or inland fisheries). This bibliography also primarily approaches fisheries law as a matter of fisheries conservation and management under the international law of the sea. The two main treaties of global application which reflect its foundational framework are the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and the United Nations Agreement for the Implementation of the Provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 10 December 1982 relating to the Conservation and Management of Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks (UNFSA). As a starting point, one should consult the maritime zones established under UNCLOS and customary law, whereby the distribution of rights and obligations among the various capacities of states differs per maritime zone. As fish do not respect legal boundaries, special rules of international law that emphasize cooperation and management between states must be adopted and adapted for shared fish stocks such as transboundary fish stocks, straddling fish stocks, and highly migratory fish stocks. In addition, various treaties of global application dealing with specific issues exist, such as the 1993 Agreement to Promote Compliance with International Conservation and Management Measures by Fishing Vessels on the High Seas (Compliance Agreement) and, most recently, the 2009 Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing (PSMA). This global treaty framework is complemented by various global non–legally binding instruments, most of which were adopted under the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). On the regional level, countless multilateral and bilateral fisheries treaties have been concluded, and the field remains highly dynamic. Notably, many fisheries are nowadays managed by Regional Fisheries Management Organizations and Arrangements (RFMO/As) or bilateral fisheries commissions. As a thematically defined field of law, international fisheries law is not restricted to the rules governing conservation and management of marine fisheries, but may equally raise, among other issues, questions of general international law of the sea such as jurisdiction and maritime law enforcement operations, international environmental law, international trade law, international human rights law, and international dispute settlement.

20 Regional Fisheries Management Organizations

2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rayfuse Rosemary
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Fisheries Management ◽  
Law Of The Sea ◽  
Marine Biodiversity ◽  
Specific Content ◽  
United Nations Convention ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
Regional Fisheries Management Organizations ◽  
Regional Fisheries Management

This chapter assesses the contribution of Regional Fisheries Management Organisations (RFMOs) to the achievement of the principles of conservation and cooperation articulated in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOSC). It begins with a brief historical introduction to the institutionalisation of cooperation through RFMOs and an examination of their structural limitations. It then considers the role and contribution of RFMOs in developing the specific content of the obligation to conserve, including the implications for RFMOs of the increasing recognition of the need to protect, conserve, and manage marine biodiversity in general. Finally, it examines the challenges to RFMOs posed by climate change.

7 Fishing and the Conservation of Marine Living Resources

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Harrison James
Keyword(s):  
International Law ◽  
Marine Mammals ◽  
Code Of Conduct ◽  
Legal Framework ◽  
Fish Stocks ◽  
United Nations Convention ◽  
The Law ◽  
Regional Fisheries Management Organizations ◽  
Law Making

Chapter 7 reviews the legal framework for the regulation of fishing in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and explains how States have developed additional rules and standards for the conservation of marine living resources at global and regional levels. In particular, the analysis considers the extent to which States have implemented a precautionary and ecosystems approach to fisheries, as well as how they have sought to adopt law-making techniques that overcome the challenges of regulating the open-access resources of the high seas. The chapter covers major developments in the international law of fisheries, including the Code of Conduct on Responsible Fisheries, the Fish Stocks Agreement, the Port State Measures Agreement, and the International Guidelines on Deep-Sea Fisheries. The role of Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs) in implementing these instruments is considered a key feature of the law-making process. The chapter also addresses the specific regimes that apply to anadromous species, catadromous species, and marine mammals.

Hot Pursuit and the Exercise of Enforcement Jurisdiction beyond the EEZ

2021 ◽  
pp. 295-337
Author(s):  
Camille Goodman
Keyword(s):  
Coastal State ◽  
Black And White ◽  
Exclusive Jurisdiction ◽  
Substantive Content ◽  
Community Interest ◽  
Use Of Technology ◽  
United Nations Convention ◽  
Effective Conservation ◽  
Conservation And Management ◽  
High Seas

This Chapter considers the enforcement of coastal State fisheries laws and regulations beyond the exclusive economic zone (EEZ) following a hot pursuit. While the general framework for hot pursuit established in the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea is clear, its substantive content and operation—particularly in situations that do not fall neatly within the black and white terms of the framework—is less clear. This Chapter considers the key challenges to this framework, and the extent to which—and the ways in which—coastal States have implemented, developed, or departed from it in practice, focusing in particular on the domestic legal basis for conducting hot pursuit, the use of technology in the conduct of hot pursuit, and cooperative approaches to hot pursuit. While recognizing that the hot pursuit doctrine must strike an appropriate balance between the sovereign rights of the coastal State to enforce its laws and the exclusive jurisdiction of the flag State over its vessels on the high seas, the Chapter argues that there is also a broader community interest to be balanced on both sides of this equation: to ensure the effective conservation and management of living resources, and preserve the freedom of navigation on the high seas. This is reflected in the Chapter’s examination of practice, which reveals that States have adopted and implemented a functional, contemporary approach to hot pursuit within the framework of the existing doctrine, which itself has proved to be at once flexible and remarkably enduring.

The Freedom to Use the High Seas to Protect and Preserve the Marine Environment: Case Study of the Activities of The Ocean Cleanup

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-11
Author(s):  
Talitha Ramphal
Keyword(s):  
United Nations ◽  
International Law ◽  
Marine Environment ◽  
Marine Debris ◽  
Law Of The Sea ◽  
United Nations Convention ◽  
The United Nations ◽  
The Law ◽  
High Seas

Abstract Activities to tackle marine debris are conducted on the high seas by The Ocean Cleanup. The high seas are open to all States and may be used as long this is consistent with the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOSC) and other rules of international law. This article argues that the LOSC provides for the freedom to use the high seas to protect and preserve the marine environment, including tackling marine debris, when interpreting Article 87 of the LOSC in light of present day needs.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document