An Ocean Blueprint for the 21st Century - California Ocean ...

• Major government subsidies aimed at building up national fishing industries.• Bycatch of non-target species.• High levels of discards, reaching approximately 20 percent of the total catch. 25• Fishing practices that degrade habitat.• Inadequate understanding of how marine ecosystems function.• Lack of monitoring data and poor statistics.The Law of the Sea FrameworkAs noted in Chapter 2, the traditional freedom of the high seas was based on a belief thatthe ocean’s bounty was inexhaustible and that humans would never be in a position toexploit much of it. As ocean resources grew in importance, and its vastness was conquered,these attitudes changed. In 1976, the United States asserted jurisdiction over fishery resourceswithin 200 nautical miles from its shores. In 1982, the United Nations Convention on theLaw of the Sea (LOS Convention) created EEZs extending generally out to 200 nauticalmiles from the shores of all coastal states and authorizing national regulation of living (andnonliving) marine resources in areas that were formerly the high seas.However, many fisheries, such as highly migratory species like tuna, extend beyond asingle country’s EEZ. In the absence of international cooperation and some form of internationalgovernance, the community of nationscould witness the classic “tragedy of the commons,”leading to the potentially irreversible overexploitationof living marine resources.International management challenges are exacerbatedby the fact that the regulation of fishing on thehigh seas has traditionally been left to the nationunder which a vessel is registered (referred to as theflag state). As discussed in Chapter 16, flag stateenforcement is extremely uneven and vessel ownerscan seek less stringent regulations and enforcementsimply by reflagging their vessels.International FisheryConservation AgreementsUnited Nations Food and Agriculture OrganizationInternational cooperation is essential to preserve large migratoryspecies, such as the tuna shown here, that are harvested over awide geographic range.In the 1990s, the international community, workingmainly through the United Nations Food andAgriculture Organization’s (FAO’s) Committee onFisheries, began to address deficiencies in internationalfishery management, with the United Statesplaying a lead role. Two global agreements werereached that are binding on signatories: the FAOCompliance Agreement and the Fish StocksAgreement. The FAO also adopted a number of voluntarymeasures that provide guidance to nations onmanaging fisheries. (For a listing of ocean-relatedinternational agreements, see Table 29.1.) Althoughthey do not have the force of law, nonbinding instrumentscan influence national practices and customs,provide nations with flexibility in implementation,and make headway in the face of scientific or economicuncertainty.300 A N O CEAN B LUEPRINT FOR THE 21ST C ENTURY