Accountability.Fish Global Director Ryan Orgera addresses the implications of closed shop RFMOs

Who controls the world’s oceans? Even though this is a massive question, the answer is problematic to say the least. It’s problematic in that the only bodies with any meaningful say in what happens to the oceans are 17 obscure organisations that are heavily focused on the management of fish as a commodity. The problem is not simply a result of the obscurity of these bodies, called Regional Fisheries Management Organisations (RFMOs, for short), or even of their near-singular focus on industrial fishing, but that these organisations can’t even manage the fisheries properly.