South Pacific fisheries - getting hot in Chile

UN Fish Stocks Agreement Briefing

22 May 2006

The UN Fish Stocks Agreement (FSA) is the most comprehensive global agreement relating to the conservation and management of straddling and highly migratory fish stocks. Enhanced implementation, increased participation, as well as the adoption of clear and consistent binding measures to address specific concerns such as illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, participatory rights within regional fisheries management organisations, and management of other high seas fish stocks are all essential if the underlying intent of the Fish Stocks Agreement is to be realised.

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Caught red-handed: daylight robbery on the high seas

22 May 2006

Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing is a global problem that needs global solutions. While many states around the planet have paid attention to the issue on a national and regional level, they have not been able to solve the problem of a highly mobile global pirate fishing fleet ready to flout the laws and exploit its gaps whenever and wherever they see fit. Local and regional solutions are simply not sufficient if the international community is to deal effectively with fishing pirates, stealing marine life from honest fishermen, and future generations. This paper focusses on redfish, five IUU trawlers, the Irminger Sea and the North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission (NEAFC) -- to expose the daylight robbery taking place across our seas and to outline why regional management is not sufficient to deal with the challenges posed by pirate fishing.

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Fishing from south to north - the story of the Kerguelen

01 March 2006

On September 20, 2005, Greenpeace confronted the high seas bottom trawler Kerguelen fishing illegally in the international waters of the Barents Sea known as the ‘Loophole’.

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High Seas Bottom Trawl Red Herrings

10 June 2005

The Deep Sea Conservation Coalition (DSCC), a combined force of more than 40 conservation groups from around the world, is calling on the United Nations General Assembly to secure a moratorium on high-seas bottom trawling until a regime to protect deep-sea fisheries and biodiversity is developed and implemented. In an effort to fight this conservation measure, the fishing industry has made numerous fictitious claims aimed at downplaying the detrimental effects of bottom trawling on deep-sea ecosystems. These claims are easily refuted by the staggering amount of scientific evidence demonstrating the harmful impacts and unfortunate expansion of the bottom-trawling fishery from the shallow continental shelf to deeper and more distant waters beyond national jurisdiction. This document presents a compilation of the claims offered by the fishing industry, each followed by a powerful rebuttal based on the best available science.

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Deep, Deep Trouble: Regional Fisheries Management Organisations, the UN Fish Stocks Agreement and the Regulation of High Seas Bottom Trawling

15 March 2005

Late last year, the United Nations General Assembly in its Fisheries Resolution expressed concern at the loss of sharks, albatross, fin-fish species and marine turtles as a result of incidental mortality, vulnerability of shark populations to over-exploitation, fishing overcapacity, illegal and unreported fishing, excessive bycatch, and the effects of destructive fishing activities on vulnerable marine ecosystems. It then tasked Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs) with the responsibility of addressing these issues. Yet these issues have developed despite the existence of RFMOs, and the record of RFMOs in addressing these issues is far from reassuring, and there are structural and functional barriers to RFMOs addressing the issues in the future unless major reforms are implemented.

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Bottom Trawling Factsheet

18 October 2004

Deep sea life is being destroyed by sea bottom trawling before scientists can unravel the mysteries of the deep. There is unprecedented concern about the destruction of our deep seas. More than 1000 eminent marine scientists from 60 countries have signed a public statement calling for a moratorium on bottom trawling in international waters.

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Deep Sea Biodiversity Factsheet

18 October 2004

It is the enormous variety of marine life that makes seamounts such an important part of ocean ecosystems. The biodiversity found on high seas seamounts is as rich - and some believe richer - than that found in the great ancient rainforests of the world.

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