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WWF'S ENDANGERED SEAS CAMPAIGN Summary of Recommendations to the General Assembly

November 1997

WWF calls on the General Assembly to:

  • Urge Governments to ratify or accede to the UN Fish Stocks Agreement
  • Set a timetable for its entry into force by the end of 1998
  • Review the failure of Governments and regional fisheries bodies to begin implementing the Agreement
  • Identify the reforms and mechanisms needed to promote accession to and provisional application of the Agreement as well as effective oversight of implementation
  • Identify urgent and immediate action to reduce subsidies to commercial fisheries
  • Agree to action on by-catch, specifically of shark species to address the burgeoning international trade in shark parts and products.
INTRODUCTION
The annual General Assembly agenda item on Oceans and the Law of the Sea affords an opportunity to review developments related to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOS) as well as to its implementing and related agreements. It also permits an overview of the activities of many ocean-related international and regional organizations and of their member states.

International arrangements for the oceans are evolving. Their potential impacts and their relationship to the broader UN reforms that have been or may be proposed make oceans governance - particularly as it relates to fisheries issues - a key concern for the 52nd General Assembly.

THE UN FISH STOCKS AGREEMENT
The review of the UN Fish Stocks Agreement offers a critical tool to encourage accession to the Agreement and an opportunity to consider specific problem areas and propose solutions. It is deeply regrettable that the first review of the Agreement by the 51st General Assembly did nothing to address serious obstacles to effective implementation of the treaty. WWF is particularly concerned about the apparent unwillingness of several major fishing nations to accede to the Agreement. Only four of the world's top 20 fishing nations - who together are responsible for 80 per cent of global fish production - have so far become parties to the Agreement.

THE TOP TWENTY FISHING NATIONS
Top 20 fishing nations that have not even signed but who should now become parties by acceding:

  • Peru, Chile, India, Malaysia,Thailand, North Korea, Mexico, Vietnam.(8)

    Top 20 fishing nations that have signed but who need to ratify to become parties:

  • China (PRC), Japan, Indonesia, Republic of Korea, Philippines, Denmark, Spain, Bangladesh. (8)

    Top 20 fishing nations that have signed and ratified:

  • US, Russian Federation, Norway and Iceland.

    The actions needed to improve the pace of accession to the Agreement should be the paramount concern of the 52nd session of the General Assembly. Governments that have not become parties to the Agreement should clearly signal their intention to do so during the current General Assembly.

    FAILURE TO IMPLEMENT
    The General Assembly should also review the overwhelming failure by Governments and regional fisheries bodies, such as ICCAT and GFCM, to begin implementing the Agreement provisionally. For example, last year ICCAT rejected as "premature" a proposal to begin examining how to implement the provisions of the Agreement and the Commission continues to operate without the transparency required by Article 12. Perhaps the most striking evidence that the Agreement has so far had absolutely no impact on the high seas is the rampant overfishing and poaching of Patagonian toothfish (Dissostichus) that is currently taking place in the Southern Ocean.

    OVERSIGHT OF IMPLEMENTATION
    The General Assembly should establish a practical mechanism for oversight of regional and subregional fisheries management organizations and their implementation of the UN Fish Stocks Agreement. For example, the General Assembly could call on the State Parties to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (SPLOS) to act as a preparatory body for discussions on the Fish Stocks Agreement pending its entry into force and the first meeting of the Parties. Another more immediate option would be for the General Assembly to adopt an "implementation resolution" which would provide clear direction to governments and regional fisheries organizations on the need for timely accession to the Agreement, the need to apply the Agreement on a provisional basis, and the actions necessary to safeguard particular straddling or highly migratory fish stocks of concern, such as sharks, bluefin tuna and Patagonian toothfish.

    SUBSIDIES
    Very little progress has been made in reducing the tens of billions of dollars that governments spend annually to subsidize commercial fisheries around the world. There is a clear link between these subsidies, the resulting overcapacity in the fishing industry and the problems of global fisheries depletion. It is critical for the General Assembly to identify urgent and immediate action to be taken by governments and the World Trade Organization to reduce fisheries subsidies. Reducing subsidies is consistent with both conservation and trade liberalization. Effective solutions will require closer collaboration between intergovernmental organizations such as the FAO, UNEP, UNCTAD, WTO and OECD and collaboration between governments, environment and development NGOs and industry.

    BY-CATCH - SHARKS
    The growing world-wide concern over the status of shark species warrants a decision by the General Assembly. A recent report by TRAFFIC (the wildlife trade monitoring arm of WWF and IUCN-The World Conservation Union) entitled An Overview of World Trade in Sharks concludes that between 30-70 million sharks are caught annually as by-catch in other fisheries (mostly for pelagic species such as tunas) and that shark fisheries are largely unmanaged and unmonitored. In March 1997, FAO's Committee on Fisheries echoed this concern over dwindling shark populations and requested Japan and the United States to organize an expert consultation on the subject in 1998. In June 1997, recognizing that the expanding trade in shark parts and products is uncontrolled, the 10th Meeting of the Conference of the Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species (CITES) unanimously adopted a resolution calling for further action.