Regional Cooperation Against Illegal Fishing in the Pacific Ocean: Policy Options and Implementation Strategies for Sustainable Use
Background Information
There is a global resource crisis in ocean fisheries. Overall, 47-50% of marine fisheries are fully exploited and 15-18% are overexploited. Contributing to depletion of fish stocks is the problem of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Despite international recognition and the development of new strategies to combat IUU fishing, the problem is growing. This project seeks to analyze the role of Regional Fishery Management Organizations (RFMOs) in responding to the problem of IUU fishing activities in the Pacific Ocean and to produce specific recommendations for increasing their effectiveness in this vital aspect of their resource-management role.
Several aspects of Pacific regional economy and international relations give ocean-fishing issues unique importance. The Pacific Rim comprises island states where artisanal fishing is a major source of food and income, and also industrialized states whose distant-water fishing (DWF) fleets are among the largest and most productive in the world. The Pacific region’s multilateral fishery agreements represent nearly the full spectrum of RFMO structures, policies, and procedures. Moreover, the Pacific Ocean area has one of the world’s first RFMOs, the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission, formed in 1949. Among others are the Forum Fisheries Agency, a unique arrangement by which the small island nations link with the greatest powers in the southwestern Pacific region to present a united front for negotiation of coastal water fishing rights; and, most recent in origin, is the Western and Central Pacific Ocean Fisheries Commission, seeking to bring a vast ocean area under newly fashioned systematic scientific management. These and other RFMOs have expressed the hopes of dealing more effectively with IUU fishing vessels.
Project Goals
This project was started in the summer of 2003 and will extend through the end of 2004. In the last few years, the topic of IUU fishing has received increasing attention from international organizations such as FAO, multilateral organizations such as RFMOs, non-governmental organizations including environmental organizations and commercial fishing industry organizations, and academic scholars. In spite of increased awareness and accumulation of information, IUU fishing is on the rise.
This project seeks to analyze the role of RFMOs in responding to the problem of illegal marine fishing activities in the Pacific Ocean. The goal is to produce specific recommendations for increasing their effectiveness in this vital aspect of their resource-management role. The recommendations will be formulated so as to meet the general requirements of international law on sustainable use, biodiversity, and the precautionary principle
Work to Date
Members of the research team have participated in or attended, in invited-observer status, numerous scientific and/or management meetings regarding national and international fisheries. These meetings have included: the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission meeting in October 2003 (as an observer); a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries meeting, “Managing Our Nation’s Fisheries: Past, Present and Future,” in November 2003; an Office of Economic Co-operation and Development meeting, “Workshop on Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing Activities,” in April 2004; the Preparatory Conference VI for the Establishment of the Commission for The Conservation and Management of Highly Migratory Fish Stocks in the Western and Central Pacific in April 2004; and the FAO “Technical Consultation to Review Progress and to Promote the Full Implementation of the IPOA to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate IUU Fishing and of the IPOA for the Management of Fishing Capacity” in June 2004. The project design includes interviews with RFMOs, national officials, industry, and NGOs to augment published data for measurement of IUU activity and impact; the project is focusing on efficacy of monitoring, surveillance, and enforcement efforts in the varied modes pursued. Written questionnaires have been distributed as well.
The Research Team
Harry N. Scheiber, Ph.D., D.Jur. (h.c.)
Professor Scheiber is the Co-Director of the Law of the Sea Institute and Stefan A. Riesenfeld Professor of Law and History, School of Law, University of California, Berkeley.
Phone: 510-643-9788/643-3595
Email: scheiber@uclink.berkeley.edu
Yann-Huei Song, Ph.D., Jur.D.
Professor Song is a research fellow and Deputy Director at the Institute of European and American Studies, Academia Sinica, Nankang, Taipei, Taiwan; and is Adjunct Professor at National Taiwan Ocean University and at Soochow University School of Law. Professor Song is currently a Fulbright Scholar visiting at Stanford University.
Email: yhsong@eanovell.ea.sinica.edu.tw or yhsong@stanford.edu
Kathryn J. Mengerink, Ph.D., J.D.
Dr. Mengerink is a Law Fellow at the Environmental Law Institute in Washington, DC. She received her Ph.D. in Marine Biology from Scripps Institute of Oceanography at UC San Diego; and the J.D. from Boalt Hall School of Law, UC Berkeley, with a Certificate of Specialization in Environmental Law. During law school, Dr. Mengerink was a research associate in the Law of the Sea Institute.
E-mail: mengerink@eli.org
Two distinguished senior scholars are serving as project advisors: Professor Moritaka Hayashi, Waseda University, former director of the UN FAO global fisheries program; and Professor Jon Van Dyke, School of Law, University of Hawaii at Manoa.