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 November 3 – The
United States, a leading participant in the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations meeting in Rome last week,
is pleased that the world body has successfully reached agreement
on three critical international marine conservation and management
accords; addressing excess world fishing fleet capacity, and
improving international conservation and management of sharks
and seabirds.
FAO participants agreed on the need for
all FAO members to accomplish a comprehensive series of measures
to better identify the status of, and manage the world fishing
fleet. These measures include regularly assessing their levels
of harvesting capacity, maintaining national records of fishing
fleets, developing and implementing national capacity management
plans, and within the context of these national plans, reducing
and progressively eliminating subsidies that contribute to the
build-up of fishing capacity.
"Overcapacity of the world
fishing fleet is the greatest concern for the future of the ocean's
marine resources," said chief U.S. negotiator Terry D. Garcia,
Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Oceans and Atmosphere. "The
FAO consultation has successfully begun the process to resolve
this concern through its actions last week in Rome." "It
will now be up to member nations to follow through, and implement
these measures," Garcia added.
Participants also agreed that
the FAO will develop a global register of all fishing fleets
operating on the high seas and will begin to collect information
needed for further analysis of the causes of overcapacity, including
open access fisheries, unsustainable fishery management, and
subsidies. The FAO Committee on Fisheries meeting in February
will discuss whether these capacity issues will be policy guidelines,
or a global plan of action.
The FAO members also agreed to
Plans of Action regarding two important conservation and management
issues, sharks and seabirds. The plans describe concrete and
specific steps to improve the conservation of sharks and seabirds
at the national, regional, and global levels, calling for national
plans by 2001. Countries are to conduct assessments of sharks
and seabird bycatch and, if necessary, develop National Plans
of Action.
"These international plans
of action should establish sound management practices world-wide
for the conservation of sharks and reducing incidental bycatch,"
said Garcia. "The United States pressed for and achieved
plans that feature the inclusion of suggested measures to identify
the problem and develop a national plan to resolve it by the
year 2001. Further, the use of regional fishery management arrangements
is encouraged to ensure the international coordination for addressing
these problems," Garcia added.
The FAO meeting was called to
pursue initiatives on sharks, seabird bycatch reduction and the
management of fishing capacity. These initiatives arise from
the 1995 FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries and are
efforts to implement several of its key provisions. The Code
is the only international agreement that addresses practically
all aspects of fisheries, including marine and freshwater, capture
fisheries and aquaculture, and harvesting and shoreside operations.
"Several provisions of the
Code are directly applicable to addressing problems in the areas
of sharks, seabird bycatch reduction, and managing fishing capacity,"
said Garcia. "The Rome meeting represents the first concrete
and specific steps to implement on a global basis important provisions
of the Code. By any measure, the meeting results are a success
for us."
Although both plans are voluntary
in nature, the process for their development is designed to lead
to their endorsement by consensus at the FAO Committee on Fisheries
Meeting in February 1999 and adoption by the FAO Conference in
November 1999.
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