With the timings for ratification and implementation of the new United Nations’ High Seas Treaty yet to be set, fisheries governance pressure group Accountability.Fish is calling for urgent action to open up the deliberations of international fisheries management bodies to keep industrial fishers from “pulling a fast one” by ramping up overfishing before the treaty comes into effect.
“The UN High Seas treaty agreement is great news for the long term. But there are short term dangers that it brings that require urgent attention,” Accountability.Fish Global Director Ryan Orgera said. “Currently, the only ocean management bodies active in the world are regional fisheries management organisations (RFMOs), and there is every indication that some RFMOs will give overfishing a green light until they are forced to do so by a treaty.”
According to the US-based organization, the key red flags in this regard include the extent to which industrial fishing interests were involved in fighting a UN agreement, and the fact that many RFMOs have policies that discourage citizen, market, consumer and conservationist observers from attending RFMO deliberations and decisions, and the media from reporting on them.
“Two good examples are ICCAT (the Atlantic tuna RFMO), which recently held its meetings at an isolated golf hotel in Portugal, and the WCPFC (the RFMO governing tuna fishing in the western Pacific) which has not admitted NGO or media observers to its compliance meetings. Without robust oversight, there’s every reason to believe that the RFMOs will let overfishers cash in before the treaty comes into effect,” Orgera said.
Accountability.Fish wants to open the decision-making processes of all RFMOs to a level equal to those of member countries like the US, France, Canada and New Zealand.
“The irony is that the democracies have strong traditions of open meetings and visible decision-making processes at home, yet they tolerate a disgusting level of secrecy in these critical global bodies. We are asking for urgent action - by these countries and others - to open the RFMO decision-making process before it’s too late,” said Orgera,
Earlier this month, after two decades of talks, UN member countries agreed a treaty to protect the high seas that will ensure the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity in areas beyond national jurisdiction. The High Seas Treaty will place 30% of the world’s oceans into marine protected areas (MPAs) and put more money into marine conservation.
Two-thirds of the world’s oceans are currently considered international waters (or high seas), which means all countries have a right to fish, ship and do research there. But until now only about 1% of these waters have been protected, which has left the marine life in these areas at risk of exploitation from a variety of threats including overfishing.
