Sustainable Fisheries Resolution, November 2012 - The Pew ...

67th Session of the 

United Nations General Assembly 

POLICY 

STATEMENT 

Sustainable Fisheries Resolution 

November 2012

PoLICY 

STATEMENT 

The Pew Environment Group urges the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) to honor countries’ 

universal commitment to achieving sustainable global fisheries by agreeing in this year’s Sustainable 

Fisheries resolution to implement effective conservation and management measures worldwide. 

Ensuring sustainable fisheries is crucial to the conservation of biodiversity in the oceans and 

sustainable development ashore. The livelihoods of up to 820 million people, and the food security 

of some 3 billion people, currently depend on fishing. 1 These numbers will only grow as global fish 

production is expected to increase 15 percent by the year 2021. 2 

Yet the future of wild fish is in doubt. The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) reports that 

“the state of world marine fisheries is worsening and has had a negative impact on fishery production:” 

Overexploitation not only causes negative ecological consequences, but it also reduces 

fish production, which further leads to negative social and economic consequences. 

To increase the contribution of marine fisheries to the food security, economies and 

well being of coastal communities, effective management plans must be put in place 

to rebuild overexploited stocks. The situation seems more critical for some highly 

migratory, straddling and other fishery resources that are exploited solely or partially in 

the high seas. 3 

Recognizing this problem, the 2012 United Nations Conference on Sustainable Development 

(Rio+20) unanimously reaffirmed the 2015 goal, as agreed to in the Johannesburg Plan of 

Implementation (JPOI), to restore depleted stocks. Further commitments were made to urgently 

take measures necessary to maintain or restore stock to at least levels that can produce maximum 

sustainable yield—a minimum standard of sustainability. 4 With only three years to 2015, urgent 

action is needed to protect the future of wild fish and associated species. 

Achieving Sustainable Fisheries 

For many decades, the sustainability of fish stocks has been measured against the yardstick of 

“maximum sustainable yield,” or MSY. Fisheries managers pursued the ideal of allowing fishing at 

the highest possible rate a particular population could be expected to withstand in the long-term. 

The goal of permitting fishing at rates likely to achieve MSY was widely embraced by the 

international community, and was incorporated into several important international agreements 

including the U.N. Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). 

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Today it is widely recognized that managing fisheries with the aim of reaching MSY too often 

results in unsustainable practices. Managing for MSY leaves no room for error—setting fishing 

levels above MSY, by definition, results in overexploitation and declines of target stocks. Yet 

fisheries management is fraught with uncertainties about actual catch levels, the health and size of 

target stocks, natural environmental fluctuations, and increasing stresses on the marine 

environment. Managing one stock for MSY also ignores the wider effects of fishing for that stock 

on the non-target species, or the ecosystem as a whole. For example, high value fish stocks, such 

as tuna, rely on forage fish like anchovy, for food. Managing forage fish for MSY, as compared with 

setting forage fish catch limits well below MSY, very often will have adverse effects on those higher 

value fish stocks. In addition, managing tuna for MSY without also taking into consideration the 

impact on non-target, bycatch species such as sharks, can have negative impacts as well. 

Acknowledging these shortcomings, the international community agreed in the 1995 U.N. Fish 

Stocks Agreement (UNFSA) to do better. Governments agreed to apply a more precautionary and 

ecosystem-based approach to managing fish stocks on the high seas. This approach, based on 

target and limit reference points, is designed to account for uncertainty and keep fishing safely 

within sustainable limits. Countries at Rio+20 likewise agreed to raise the bar on MSY, committing 

themselves to achieving “at least” MSY for all fisheries by 2015 as agreed to in the Johannesburg 

Plan of Implementation (JPOI). 5 

To meet the goal of sustainable fisheries and healthy and resilient ocean ecosystems, 

Pew urges the UNGA to: 

Reaffirm that States and RFMOs need to apply the precautionary principle and ecosystem 

approach to managing global fish stocks so as to ensure they are all sustainable, including by 

establishing science-based target and limit reference points for the fisheries they manage. 

Accountability to the UNGA 

States and RFMOs have great responsibility for the conservation and management of global fish 

stocks. Yet the status of many of those stocks continues to worsen. As Rio+20 recognized, with this 

responsibility comes “the need for transparency and accountability in fisheries management by 

[RFMOs].” 6 The UNGA should hold States and RFMOs accountable for achieving the goal of 

sustainable global fisheries by reviewing their progress towards meeting that goal every year. 

History demonstrates that when the UNGA has set fisheries management goals, and reviewed the 

actions taken to implement those goals, real progress has been made to achieve them. This can be 

seen in the UNGA’s efforts to end large-scale pelagic driftnet fishing and destructive bottom 

fishing practices. Each UNGA intervention prompted a flurry of actions designed to show progress 

that would not have occurred had the UNGA not continued to insist that the goals be met. 

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Given the current perilous state of global fish stocks, and in order to help turn the 

goal of sustainable fisheries into a reality, the UNGA should: 

• Conduct annual reviews focused on the progress States and RFMOs are making to meet 

the goal of sustainable fisheries, with a view towards calling on States and RFMOs to 

implement additional measures in areas where fisheries are not being managed 

sustainably. Measures to be considered should include: 

• the need for science-based total allowable catch (TAC) limits for target species, 

including setting target and limit reference points; 

• the application of the ecosystem approach and precautionary principle; 

• bycatch reduction measures; 

• the application of port State measures and flag State responsibilities; 

• capacity reduction; 

• elimination of subsidies that contribute to overcapacity or overfishing; 

• and the suspension or restriction of fisheries that are not sustainable or managed 

based on sound science; and 

• Call on the 2015 UN Fish Stocks Agreement Resumed Review Conference to transparently 

review the performance of States and RFMOs in meeting their obligations to manage 

fisheries sustainably by implementing the precautionary principle and ecosystem approach. 

Combating IUU Fishing 

Illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing robs the ocean, and coastal and developing 

States of billions of dollars worth of fish every year, and is a major driver of the overexploitation of 

global fish stocks. As the international police organization INTERPOL describes it: 

Fisheries crime undermines resource conservation, threatens food security and 

livelihoods, is linked to up and down-stream crimes including money laundering, fraud, 

human trafficking and drug trafficking, and is destabilizing vulnerable coastal regions, 

such as West Africa, due to its close links with corruption. 7 

Countries at Rio+20 recommitted themselves to “eliminate” IUU fishing through the 

implementation of effective and coordinated measures by coastal States, flag States, port States, 

chartering nations and the States of nationality of the beneficial owners and others who support or 

engage in IUU fishing. 8 

As part of the strategy to address some of this problem, countries negotiated the Agreement on 

Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing 

(PSMA) under the auspices of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO) in 2009. The 

PSMA contemplates that fishing and support vessels will transmit information about their 

operations to the port State before entering ports, and that port States will deny port access to 

such vessels if there is evidence of IUU fishing. 

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A serious obstacle in the battle against IUU fishing and fisheries crime more generally, is the lack 

of access to transparent and authoritative data about the identity, flag, ownership, and 

operations of fishing vessels. This information can currently be easily changed and disguised by 

a vessel owner, making it very difficult for authorities to identify vessels and link them to their 

history or beneficial ownership. Vessels need to be identified by a unique number, allocated as 

part of a single global system. Just as is currently available for merchant vessels through their 

use of IMO (International Maritime Organization) numbers, fishing vessels — at least those of a 

class over a certain size or fishing in international waters — should also be required to have an 

IMO number. This number should also be the basic building block of the development by the 

FAO of a “Global Record” of fishing vessels. 

IUU fishing often amounts to or is linked to criminal activity. In February 2012, INTERPOL 

established an ad hoc Fisheries Crime Working Group (FCWG) that is working to highlight 

problems and improve information-sharing and cooperation among national law enforcement 

agencies to enable them to better interdict fisheries crime. The United Nations Office on Drugs 

and Crime (UNODC) has continued to make progress in its assessment of transnational 

organized crime in the fishing industry, and requested that an expert meeting be convened to 

survey the challenges arising from organized criminal activities at sea. 9 

Building on these outcomes and agreements, the UNGA should: 

• Call on States that have not yet done so to ratify and become parties to the PSMA; 

• Call on RFMOs to require its members and States whose vessels fish within its area to 

adopt port State measures consistent with the PSMA; 

• Call on flag States to mandate the use of IMO numbers for fishing vessels 100 gross 

tonnes or greater (or 24 meters in length or greater), as well as all vessels operating in 

areas beyond national jurisdiction; 

• Call on RFMOs to require that all vessels 100 gross tonnes or greater (or 24 meters in 

length or greater) authorized to fish in their regulatory area have an IMO number; 

• Welcome INTERPOL’s efforts to improve national law enforcement capacities to combat 

fisheries crime; and 

• Welcome progress by the UNODC in its assessment of transnational organized crime in 

the fishing industry, and request that an expert meeting be convened in 2013 to survey 

the challenges arising from organized criminal activities at sea. 

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Shark Conservation 

Sharks are particularly vulnerable to overexploitation because they grow slowly, mature late, and 

produce few young at one time. Of the shark and ray species assessed by scientists for the 

International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), 30 percent are considered Threatened or 

Near Threatened with extinction. 

In 1999, the FAO adopted the International Plan of Action for the Conservation and Management 

of Sharks (IPOA-Sharks). The IPOA-Sharks recommends that countries whose vessels fish for 

sharks assess whether the fishery is sustainable and develop National Plans of Action 

(NPOA-Sharks) to monitor shark stocks and implement management measures designed to 

make the fishery sustainable. 

Some developing countries have recently established shark sanctuaries in their Exclusive Economic 

Zones (EEZs), in which commercial exploitation of sharks is restricted or prohibited. Unfortunately, 

those countries need more assistance to effectively implement their sanctuaries. Also, many of the 

countries with the largest shark fisheries have not implemented conservation or management 

measures adequate to ensure sustainability. At the FAO Committee on Fisheries (COFI) meeting in 

July 2012, the FAO presented a review on the implementation of the IPOA-Sharks and the 

challenges faced by countries in implementing that instrument. While this review showed some 

progress in implementation, COFI recognized that further actions by States and regional fisheries 

management organizations (RFMOs) are needed for shark conservation and management. 

The UNGA should: 

• Welcome the growing support by many coastal and small island developing States for the 

protection and conservation of sharks, including the establishment of their waters as fully 

protected shark sanctuaries, and encourage other countries to assist in those efforts and 

take similar action to protect and conserve sharks in their waters; 

• Call on shark-fishing States to develop and fully implement an NPOA-Sharks that is 

consistent with the IPOA-Sharks; 

• Call on FAO COFI to adopt an ongoing and transparent mechanism to monitor progress 

of the implementation of the principles of the IPOA-Sharks; 

• Call on States and RFMOs to prohibit the take of threatened species of sharks, as 

assessed by IUCN and to only allow fishing for other shark species if the fishing is 

conducted under a precautionary science-based management plan that ensures 

sustainability; 

• Call upon States and RFMOs that have not yet done so to establish and implement 

species-specific data collection requirements for all sharks taken in all fisheries; and 

• Recommend that Parties to the Convention on International Trade in Endangered Species 

of Wild Fauna and Flora (CITES) support including additional Threatened shark species on 

CITES Appendices I or II, as appropriate for the status of the species. 

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Sustaining Forage Fish 

Forage fish, such as herring, sardine, menhaden, and anchovy, are a critical link in the marine food 

chain. They feed on plankton, converting it into energy and protein for predator species at the top 

of the food chain, such as tuna, mackerel, cod, seabirds, and whales. 

Forage fish make up more than a third of the total global marine fish catch by weight. 10 However, 

only about 10 percent of this is consumed directly by humans. The remaining 90 percent is 

processed into fish oil, fish meal, and other byproducts for use in agriculture, aquaculture, and 

industry. Rapid growth of aquaculture, in particular, has increased consumption of fish meal, 

resulting in unsustainable pressure on the world’s forage fish stocks. 

Forage fish experience wide natural population variability and can easily be caught en masse, 

making them vulnerable to overexploitation and sudden collapse. Historically, forage fish were 

thought to be so abundant that overfishing was impossible. But by the end of the 20th century, 

many of the world’s herring, sardine, and anchovy fisheries had collapsed due to overfishing. 11 

Forage fisheries also affect other fisheries, since many commercially and recreationally valuable 

species are highly dependent upon forage fish. However, the food needs of the larger ecosystem are 

not adequately accounted for before fishing quotas are set. Predators are often far more economically 

valuable in the marketplace; whereas forage fish are used mainly for low value fishmeal and fish oil, 

some predators are used for high-value food like sashimi. It is estimated that the global economic 

value of forage fish as prey for other commercial fisheries is twice their direct value as catch. 12 

Traditional single species fisheries management, which seeks to achieve MSY, poses substantial 

risks to forage fish as well as their predators. This is due to the uncertainties inherent in all fisheries 

management, but also to the special vulnerabilities of forage fish. Recent research found that 

management based on MSY poses a high risk of forage fish population collapse and can cause 

significant declines of dependent predators. Two recent expert reports have concluded that to 

sustain marine ecosystems, exploitation rates for many forage fisheries should be reduced to half 

the maximum under conventional MSY management. 13 In ecosystems where uncertainty is greater, 

existing forage fisheries should take at most 20 percent of the virgin biomass, and no new forage 

fisheries should be allowed. 14 


• Call on States and RFMOs to manage forage fisheries to sustain both forage fish stocks 

and their predators; 

• Call on States and RFMOs to implement precautionary measures to limit forage fisheries, 

imposing more conservative limits where uncertainty is greater; 

• Call on States and RFMOs to suspend the development of new forage fisheries until 

scientific knowledge and management measures can ensure such fisheries will not harm 

the ecosystems in which they occur; and 

• Call on States and RFMOs to implement spatial and temporal forage fishery closures as 

needed to support critical predator foraging locations and times, such as around sea bird 

rookeries during nesting season. 

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Securing Sustainable Tuna Fisheries 

Tuna fisheries are among the world’s most valuable, yet tuna are fished unsustainably in many regions. 

Many tuna fisheries make use of FADs, or “Fish Aggregating Devices,” which are artificial structures 

that attract schools of tuna. FAD use has greatly increased over the last 30 years. Tens of thousands 

are deployed every year in the world’s oceans, without any limits or effective management of FAD 

impacts. 15 In fact, this fishing gear is responsible for more tuna catch than any other. While FAD 

fishing can be a fast method for catching large schools of tuna, FADs disproportionately attract 

juvenile fish and non-target species, and their impact on the broader marine ecosystem is unknown. 

Some RFMOs have limited measures in place aimed at managing the impacts of FAD fisheries, such 

as the West and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) ban on FAD use for three months of 

the year. But to date these measures have not achieved the objective of ensuring sustainable tuna 

fisheries; for example, 2011 saw the highest rate of FAD fishing on record in the WCPFC Convention 

Area and bigeye tuna continue to be overfished in the western and central Pacific as a result. 16 

Approximately 14% of the world’s tuna are caught on longlines—lines with baited hooks that are 

strung at evenly spaced intervals along a central fishing line that can be up to 100 km in length. 

Longlines are responsible for significant bycatch and mortality of marine turtles, sharks, marine 

mammals, and seabirds. Sharks make up a quarter of the total catch in some pelagic longline tuna 

fisheries, and thus constitute an unmanaged and largely unreported fishery. A high level of 

observer coverage is critical to the management of these longline fisheries, but currently less than 

5% of all RFMO-managed longline tuna vessels have observers. 

Tuna are also fished using large driftnets suspended in the water column. Drift netting is another 

fishing method capable of rapidly catching large schools of tuna, but it too often also kills 

dolphins, marine turtles, and other vulnerable marine species. The UNGA agreed to ban drift 

netting by the end of 1992. 17 The UNGA ban led to action by States and RFMOs to ban the use of 

driftnets, and significant reductions in drift netting. However, some driftnets remain in use, in 

violation of the UNGA ban and national legislation 18 


• Call on States and RFMOs to take measures that effectively manage the impacts of FADs 

on target as well as associated species; 

• Call on RFMOs to review studies of the impacts of FADs on the sustainability of target and 

non-target fish stocks so as to adopt effective measures consistent with the precautionary 

principle and ecosystem approach to manage this destructive fishing gear; 

• Call on RFMOs to inventory, track, manage, and limit the deployment and uses of FADs 

under their jurisdiction, and develop measures to remove decommissioned FADs; 

• Call on RFMOs to immediately adopt precautionary catch limits, including target and limit 

reference points that account for the overfishing of juvenile tunas and bycatch associated 

with FAD use; 

• Reaffirm the moratorium on drift netting; and 

• Call on States and RFMOs to increase observer coverage on longline fishing vessels. 

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Eliminating Harmful Fisheries Subsidies 

Public subsidies account for nearly a third of the global fishing industry’s revenues each year. 19 

These subsidies are a significant contributor to overcapacity and unsustainable fisheries 

worldwide. The FAO estimates that eliminating fisheries subsidies would increase the profitability 

of the fishing industry as well as the biomass of commercial fish species. 20 

To achieve sustainable fisheries, Rio+20 called for an end to subsidies that contribute to 

overcapacity and overfishing, and to refrain from introducing new such subsidies. 21 The Conference 

of the Parties to the Convention on Biological Diversity likewise agreed that harmful fisheries 

subsidies should be ended by 2020: 

By 2020, at the latest, incentives, including subsidies, harmful to biodiversity are 

eliminated, phased out or reformed in order to minimize or avoid negative impacts, and 

positive incentives for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity are developed 

and applied, consistent and in harmony with the Convention and other relevant 

international obligations, taking into account national socio economic conditions. 22 


• Welcome and urge States to implement the Rio+20 decision to end fisheries subsidies 

that contribute to overcapacity and overfishing, and to refrain from introducing new 

such subsidies; 

• Support the CBD goal of ending harmful fisheries subsidies and promoting positive 

incentives for the conservation and sustainable use of fisheries by 2020; and 

• Urge the World Trade Organization (WTO) to complete its negotiations on strengthening 

disciplines on fisheries subsidies, taking into account the importance of the fisheries 

sector, including small-scale and artisanal fisheries, to developing countries. 

Deep-Sea Fisheries 

The largest and least explored environment on the planet is the deep sea. Deep-sea fish and 

ecosystems have evolved a unique suite of biological characteristics to adapt to this otherwise 

inhospitable environment. Those characteristics are of great interest to science and the 

biotechnology industry. 

But these deep sea species are uniquely vulnerable to fishing. They tend to be slow growing, long 

lived, and reproduce late in life. Deep-sea corals, sponges and other habitat forming species are 

particularly vulnerable to damage caused by bottom trawling. Deep-sea fish species often aggregate 

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around the peaks of seamounts, which makes them easy targets for sophisticated fishing technology. 

In the worst case, deep-sea bottom trawlers scour the sea floor with giant nets, grinding away 

important bottom habitats while indiscriminately catching everything in their path. 

To respond to the problems of deep-sea bottom fisheries in areas beyond national jurisdiction, the 

UNGA adopted resolutions 59/25, 61/105, 64/72, and 66/68, that reaffirm the obligations under 

UNCLOS and related instruments that environmental impact assessments must be conducted 

before potentially destructive activities are authorized, and that those activities must be managed 

to prevent significant adverse environmental impacts. These resolutions require that bottom 

fishing not be authorized until an impact assessment has been done, and precautionary 

management measures are implemented to mitigate any significant adverse impacts. The UNGA 

resolutions have also endorsed and incorporated a set of International Guidelines for the 

Management of Deep-Sea Fisheries in the High Seas negotiated under the auspices of the UN 

FAO (Guidelines), which describe how prior impact assessments should be conducted and how to 

implement effective conservation and management measures. 


• Reaffirm its commitment to Resolutions 59/25, 61/105, 64/72 and 66/88 and the 

Guidelines; and 

• Urge States and RFMOs to adopt regulations and other measures to fully implement 

Resolutions 59/25, 61/105, 64/72 and 66/88. 

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Shoal of Mackerel Fish in Ocean, © shutterstock/Rich Carey 

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Endnotes 

1 FAO. The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture 2012 [“SOFIA 2012”]. Rome, FAO. 2012. pp. 5, 10. 

2 Id., p. 188. 

3 Id., p. 59. 

4 “The Future We Want”, A/66/L.56 [Rio+20 Outcome], 168 (24 July 2012). 

5 Rio+20 Outcome, 168. 


7 INTERPOL, International Chiefs of Environmental Compliance and Enforcement meeting in Lyon, France (27-29 March 2012), Summit Report, p. 28. 


9 Resolution 20/5, Combating the problem of transnational organized crime committed at sea, Commission on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice, 

UN Doc. E/CN.15/2011/21. See also UNODC issue paper “Transnational Organized Crime in the Fishing Industry: Focus on Trafficking in Persons, 

Smuggling of Migrants and Illicit Drug Trafficking”, April 2011. 

10 Lenfest Forage Fish Task Force, Little Fish, Big Impact, p. 4 (2012). 

11 Id. at pp. 38, 41, 45, 49, 50. 

12 Id. at p. 63. 

13 Id. and Smith, A. D. M., et al. (2011). Impacts of fishing low–trophic level species on marine ecosystems. Science, 333(6046), 1147–1150. 

14 Lenfest Forage Fish Task Force, Little Fish, Big Impact, at p. 83. 

15 http://www.pewenvironment.org/news-room/reports/fish-aggregating-devices-fads-and-tuna-impacts-and-management-options-85899361033 

16 Fish Aggregating Devices and Tuna: Impacts and Management Options, Pew Ocean Science Series (July 2011), http://www.pewenvironment.org/ 

uploadedFiles/PEG/Publications/Report/PEG_OSD_FADs_English_Final.pdf. 

17 A/RES/46/215 3(c). 

18 A/57/459 218. 

19 It is estimated that the industry receives approximately US$27 billion in subsidies each year on total direct revenues of approximately US$85 billion. See 

UNEP, Towards a Green Economy: Pathways to sustainable development and poverty eradication, at 84 (2011), available at http://www.unep.org/ 

greeneconomy/GreenEconomyReport/tabid/29846/Default.aspx . 

20 SOFIA 2012, p. 200. 


22 Report of the Tenth Meeting of the Conference of the Parties. 2010. In particular: Decision X/2 (Strategic Plan for Biodiversity 2011-2020 and the Aichi 

Biodiversity Targets), Target 3, at http://www.cbd.int/sp/ and http://www.cbd.int/doc/meetings/cop/cop-10/official/cop-10-27-en.pdf. 

Contact: Pew Environment Group | international@pewtrusts.org 

For additional resources, visit us at www.PewEnvironment.org/ip. 

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ABOUT THE PEW ENVIRONMENT GROUP 

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globally to establish pragmatic, science-based policies that protect our oceans, preserve our wildlands and promote clean energy.

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