Straddling and Highly Migratory Stocks

In one line

A fish that swims across the two-hundred-mile line was regulated inside it and unregulated outside it, and the 1995 Agreement is what closed that gap.

In exam wording: the 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 was adopted on 4 August 1995 and entered into force on 11 December 2001; articles 5 to 7 state the general principles, require the application of the precautionary approach and require the compatibility of conservation and management measures inside and outside areas under national jurisdiction.

Article 5: general principles

In giving effect to their duty to cooperate, coastal States and States fishing on the high seas shall:

• adopt measures to ensure long-term sustainability and promote optimum utilisation;
• ensure that such measures are based on the best scientific evidence available and designed to maintain or restore stocks at levels capable of producing maximum sustainable yield, as qualified by relevant environmental and economic factors;
• apply the precautionary approach in accordance with article 6;
• assess the impacts of fishing, other human activities and environmental factors on target stocks and on species belonging to the same ecosystem or associated with or dependent upon the target stocks;
• adopt, where necessary, conservation and management measures for species belonging to the same ecosystem or dependent upon target stocks, with a view to maintaining or restoring them above levels at which their reproduction may become seriously threatened;
• minimise pollution, waste, discards, catch by lost or abandoned gear, catch of non-target species and impacts on associated or dependent species, in particular endangered species, through measures including the development and use of selective, environmentally safe and cost-effective fishing gear and techniques;
• protect biodiversity in the marine environment;
• take measures to prevent or eliminate overfishing and excess fishing capacity and to ensure that levels of fishing effort do not exceed those commensurate with sustainable use;
• take into account the interests of artisanal and subsistence fishers;
• collect and share, in a timely manner, complete and accurate data concerning fishing activities;
• promote and conduct scientific research and develop appropriate technologies; and
• implement and enforce conservation and management measures through effective monitoring, control and surveillance.

That list is the first statement in a binding global fisheries instrument of what is now called the ecosystem approach, and the sixth item, on discards, lost gear and non-target species, is the provision that reaches bycatch.

Article 6: the precautionary approach

Paragraph 1: States shall apply the precautionary approach widely to conservation, management and exploitation of straddling fish stocks and highly migratory fish stocks in order to protect the living marine resources and preserve the marine environment.