High seas fishing - international problems created by the Law of the Sea

UN Chronicle, Summer, 1997

In the decade following the adoption of the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, fishing on the high seas became a major international problem. The Convention gave all States the freedom to fish without regulations on the high seas, but coastal States, to which the Law of the Sea conferred exclusive economic rights, including the right to fish within 200 miles off their shores, began to complain that fleets fishing on the high seas were reducing catches in their domestic waters.

The problem centred on fish populations that "straddle" the boundaries of countries' 200-mile exclusive economic zones (EEZs), such as cod off Canada's eastern coast and pollack in the Bering Sea, and highly migratory species like tuna and swordfish, which move between EEZs and the high seas.

By the early 1990s, most stocks of commercially valued fish were running low, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). As catches became smaller, coastal States complained that the industrial-scale fishing operations of the so-called "distant-water" States on the high seas were undermining their efforts to conserve and revitalize fish stocks within the EEZs.

Reports of violence between fishing vessels from coastal and distant-water States became increasingly frequent, especially during the "cod wars" of the 1970s. Several countries, including Britain and Norway, sent naval ships to protect fishing fleets on the high seas. Spanish fishers clashed with British and French driftnetters in what came to be known as the "tuna wars". Before the United Nations Agreement on Straddling and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks was finalized in October 1995, several coastal States had fired shots at foreign fleets. In the northern Atlantic, Canada seized and confiscated a Spanish boat and crew fishing in international waters just beyond the Canadian 200-mile limit.

The coastal States most concerned during the negotiations about the impact of high seas fishing on their domestic harvest include Argentina, Australia, Canada, Chile, Iceland and New Zealand. Six countries are responsible for 90 per cent of "distant-water" fishing: Russia, Japan, Spain, Poland, the Republic of Korea, and Taiwan province of China. The United States also does a significant amount of high-seas fishing, especially for tuna, and in recent years China has become a major fishing nation.

At the Earth Summit, Governments called on the United Nations to find ways to conserve fish stocks and prevent international conflicts over fishing on the high seas. The Conference on Straddling and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks held its first full meeting in July 1993. After six negotiating sessions, a legally binding Agreement was opened for signing on 4 December 1995.

"This Agreement gives us a tool for winning the battle to save the world's fish", Ambassador Satya N. Nandan of Fiji, the Conference Chairman, said at the close of the talks. "It confers on States both the right to fish and the obligation to manage fish stocks sustainably."

Two major factors threaten the sustainability of straddling and highly migratory fish stocks: overfishing and the impact of human activities. Efforts to conserve and manage the long-term sustainability of fish stocks are undermined by overfishing, which is driven in part by the need for higher economic returns to compensate for over-investment in the industry and excess fleet capacity, which has been encouraged by generous government subsidies.

Human activities that imperil fish include: oil spills; destruction of mangrove swamps and estuaries; industrial air pollution; and production of nutrients, pesticides and other materials that run off the land and pollute the oceans. Some fishing practices, such as using dynamite on coral reefs to kill fish, also destroy critical habitats. Introducing exotic species either accidentally or deliberately into a marine environment can also harm other species in the ecosystem.

Sound fisheries conservation and management practices are needed if the demand for food from the sea is to be met over the next two decades. Better knowledge of marine resources and environments, more select fishing practices, less wasteful processing facilities and improved training for personnel responsible for managing and conserving marine living resources are needed.

The United Nations "fish talks" focused on finding ways to reverse the decline in stocks of commercially valuable species of fish to ensure sustainable yields in the future. Central to the negotiations was how to ensure the "continuity" of fisheries management regimes between the EEZs and the high seas. Straddling and highly migratory fish stocks - which also include billfish, marlins, swordfish, oceanic sharks, horse mackerel and squid - inhabit both coastal areas and the high seas at various times during their life cycles.

At the Earth Summit, Governments also called on the United Nations to negotiate an agreement to reduce land-based sources of marine pollution. Under a programme of action adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in December 1995, States agreed to reduce ocean pollution caused by sewage, heavy metals, oil, pesticides, nutrients and litter, and to stop activities that physically alter and destroy marine habitats.