Fisheries Regulations Under Extended Jurisdiction And International Law

This paper discusses two of the problems associated with the changes taking place in the international law of the sea. The first of these deals with the transit of fishing vessels through zones of national jurisdiction beyond the territorial sea. Transitting fishing vessels have an interest in expeditious transit and the coastal States have an interest in ensuring that the vessel is not fishing within its zone during transit passage. This conflict in interest is examined and various alternatives for resolving the conflict are appraised in terms of the international law of the sea. The second problem is that of the regulation of fishing for highly migratory species in high seas enclaves beyond national jurisdiction. The interests of fishing and coastal States are examined in the light of developments in customary and conventional international law. Although the problems discussed are of primary interest to the South Pacific States, they are also relevant to other regions of the world.

Until recently, the international community failed to adopt either an agreed limit for the breadth of the territorial sea or a satisfactory regime of fisheries in the waters adjacent to the territorial sea. This provoked an eruption of unilateral acts by which coastal states extended their jurisdiction towards the high seas. The Third U.N. Conference on the Law of the Sea accepted the establishment of a 12-mile territorial sea and a 200-mile exclusive economic zone. While taking into account the non-existent rights and interests of the so-called geographically disadvantaged states and of states with broad continental shelves, the 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea practically ignored existing rights and interests of habitual fishing states. It maintained the well-established principle of freedom of fishing on the high seas but with specific conditions. Dissatisfied with the Convention's regulation of fishing on the high seas, a few states elected to hold a U.N. Conference on Straddling and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks which adopted the 1995 Agreement for the implementation of the provisions of the Convention relating to the conservation and management of such stocks. Similarly, some of these states, like Chile, Argentina, and Canada, adopted legislation extending their jurisdiction beyond their respective 200-mile fishing or exclusive economic zones. This book explores these events in the historical development of the international regulations of fisheries and concludes with a look into recent developments in the area.

Through the ages, international fisheries law has been characterized by a dialectic between flag States and coastal States. The institution of the Exclusive Economic Zone marked a milestone in the seaward extension of coastal States’ powers. However, it has not brought the expected results, and coastal States have to a great extent failed to act as “trustees” of global fisheries. An emerging role in the fight against Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated fishing has been played by States in their quality as States of active nationality, port States, and market States. Multiple jurisdictional claims raise a number of complexities relating, inter alia, to double criminality, or respect for legality and ne bis in idem principles in the case of prosecution of fisheries crimes. This book investigates the extent and nature of State jurisdiction (prescriptive, adjudicative and enforcement) in fisheries matters, and related problems of coordination. It also discusses the role of Regional Fisheries Management Organizations in regulating fishing activities in different marine areas and in delimiting the States’ respective spheres of power. The entire investigation is functional to critically assessing to what extent the emergence of a new jurisdictional balance pursues the interests of States acting uti singuli, or the general interests of the international community as a whole.

Analyses the concept of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and the international instruments which provide the legal and policy framework to combat IUU fishing. Palma, Tsamenyi and Edeson, University of Wollongong, Australia.

This book has its genesis in materials collected in the Hestern Central Atlantic region in preparation for a regional seminar on the Changing Law of the Sea and its Implications for Fisheries in the Hestern Atlantic. The Seminar, which was organised by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the UN and funded by the Norwegian government, was held in Havana, Cuba, 1980. Most of the materials were gathered by the authors as a result of direct contact with the fisheries authorities of the region, and supplemented where possible by information obtained from public sources for the remaining countries not visited. Twenty seven countries in the region were visited, and the authors were able to obtain materials much of which is not readily accessible except in the individual countries. In writing this book, the authors have become indebted to many people for their advice and assistance. He wish to thank in particular the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations for permitting use to be made of papers submitted to the Havana seminar, and to the following members of that Organisation: L.