WWF/TRAFFIC singles out east coast fisheries for reform

Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs) are the main mechanism developed by States to regulate fishing on the high seas – areas beyond national laws. But many fish stocks managed by RFMOs, such as Grand Bank cod, have collapsed or are on the brink of commercial extinction.

In the Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization (NAFO), some dissatisfied members have ignored quotas and unilaterally set their own, while within the RFMO responsible for Southern Bluefin tuna, some countries regularly exceed their quotas. Alarmingly, several States are still not joining up to RFMOs and are undermining the efforts of responsible countries.

“Here in Canada, it has long been recognized that the severe decline and recovery failures in fish stocks under NAFO’s watch is evidence that major management reform is needed,” said Dr. Robert Rangeley, Atlantic Marine Program Director, WWF-Canada. “This report provides important lessons from around the globe and shows that RFMOs can improve practices to protect habitat and marine life if managed effectively. In order to become truly effective, NAFO must address these institutional failures and make real change on the water such as protecting sensitive habitats like corals and seamounts and reduce the unsustainable levels of bycatch impacting cod recovery off Canada’s east coast.”

“RFMOs are an established and critical mechanism for combating over-fishing,” said Dr Simon Cripps, Director of WWF’s Global Marine Programme. “RFMOs must immediately implement their conservation and management measures if they’re to prevent empty oceans, empty plates and lost livelihoods in the future.”

The new report, Follow the Leader: Learning from experience and best practice in regional fisheries management organizations, illustrates both effective and ineffective practices while also outlining how RFMOs can work smarter and better.

Over the last decade the management of high seas stocks has been challenged by the expansion of bottom-trawling into deep water to target new stocks. With most RFMOs slow to adopt management measures for these fisheries, many deep sea populations, such as orange roughy, have collapsed.

“Although past performance of most RFMOs has been poor, innovative solutions to common problems have been developed by a few organizations resulting in a more sustainable approach,” said Ernie Cooper, Canadian Representative for TRAFFIC. “What is now urgently needed is for these best practice approaches to be shared, improved upon and more broadly adopted to combat destructive over-fishing on the high seas.”

The report is designed to inform discussions in New York next week (May 22–26) when governments meet for the Review Conference on the United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement – the legal framework for the management of fish stocks on the high seas.

In September, NAFO will be holding their annual meeting in Dartmouth, N. S. where newly proposed organizational reforms will be decided.

“WWF-Canada will soon be releasing a new report outlining what measures NAFO needs to implement in order to recover the Northwest Atlantic ecosystem,” concluded Rangeley. “This September the world and WWF will be watching to see if NAFO is up to the challenge.”