UN-based organizations

United Nations Convention on Law of the Sea

UNCLOS was held in December 1982. The full contents of the convention can be found here: http://www.un.org/Depts/los/convention_agreements/convention_overview_convention.htm

One of its main accomplishments was the establishment of Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZ), a line 200 mile offshore that set the boundaries for waters open to a country's jurisdiction. An immediate result of this was a decline in the number of Distant Water Fleets (DWFs) because of the complexity involved in obtaining licenses to fish in another country's waters. Of the total amount of fish caught worldwide, the amount caught by DWFs has usually around 5 percent since 1993, as opposed to a rate of 15.5 percent in 1972.

FAO International Plans of Action

IPOAs are outlines, or Codes of Conduct, for how countries should approach specific problems related to fisheries. Currently there are four established IPOAs: reducing seabird bycatch, managing sharks, reducing the fishing capacity, and managing Illegal, Unregulated, and Unreported (IUU) fishing.

Regional Fishery Bodies

A list can be found here: http://www.fao.org/fi/body/rfb/chooserfb.htm


Sources: Yumiko Kura, Carmen Revenga, Eriko Hoshino, and Greg Mock. Fishing For Answers: Making Sense of the Global Fishing Crisis. Full text can be downloaded http://www.wri.org/biodiv/pubs_description.cfm?pid=3866

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