An expert panel has ranked the world’s fishing nations according to how well they comply with the UN regulations for responsible fishery. Norway is at the head of the list.
Three researchers at the University of British Columbia and the University of Rio Grande have, in conjunction with WWF, studied how the world's greatest fishery nations comply with the UN regulations for responsible fishing, the FAO Code of Conduct. Norway is regarded as best in the report, followed by the USA, Canada, Australia and Iceland.
The report points out particularly that Norway and Iceland have a better accordance between their fishing and the UN Code of Conduct than many EU states.
"This may be because these countries' national economy is to a much greater degree dependent upon the fisheries. In addition, these countries have traditionally supported development of the regulations", says the report, recently published in the magazine Nature.
Another conclusion in the report is that the level of welfare in a country, its method of government and stability are linked to how well the country's fishing industry complies with UN regulations.
The expert panel studied fisheries in 53 countries that are responsible for 96 per cent of the harvest from the sea on a global basis. In the study, the researchers evaluated the countries in six different areas. The first three investigate the countries' will to comply with the UN regulations, while the three last are about how efficiently they are actually complied with.
"Twelve years after the agreement of the Code of Conduct, there is still plenty of room for improvement, even at the countries who at the head of the ranking," concludes the report.
