The FAO’s Committee on Fisheries met in Rome to discuss pressing issues, including progress towards responsible fisheries, deep sea fisheries and rehabilitating fisheries affected by the December tsunami.
The 26th meeting of the Committee on Fisheries (COFI), a subsidiary body of the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), was held in Rome, 7-11 March. Around six hundred participants from governmental delegations, UN agencies and observers from inter-governmental and non-governmental organisations attended the meeting to discuss international fisheries management.
The first day focussed on progress towards responsible fisheries, 10 years on from the adoption of the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries. Most FAO members reported having national fishing policies or legislation that wholly or partially conformed to the code [according to an FAO press release]. However, the FAO’s new report on the State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture, presented immediately before the COFI meeting, found that most fish stocks are fully- or over-exploited, despite improvements in fisheries management practices.
Day two of the meeting focussed on rehabilitation of fisheries in the Indian Ocean following the December tsunami. The FAO emphasised the need to focus assistance on small-scale fishers and aquaculturists, and to avoid building up overcapacity.
COFI presented their report on deep sea fisheries, which concluded that there is currently insufficient data on stock levels, fishing effort and effects of fishing on the benthos to effectively manage such fisheries. They cautioned that deep sea bottom-dwelling fish are particularly vulnerable to over-harvesting because of their low reproductive rates and slow development, adding that “many deepwater resources are depleted and require rebuilding”. As deep sea fisheries are developing rapidly, there is an urgent need for “globally-coordinated efforts” to collect data and make realistic assessments of sustainable yields.
Another report, on the use of marine protected areas (MPAs) in fisheries management, concluded that MPAs have great potential as a complementary measure, providing they are based on complete scientific information and take account of specific fisheries needs and existing management measures.
Other topics discussed were: fish trade, aquaculture, support for small-scale fisheries, and sea turtle conservation.
Following the COFI meeting, fisheries ministers met to discuss tsunami rehabilitation and ways to intensify action against Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing. Their recommendations on IUU included: the creation of a comprehensive global record of fishing vessels within FAO; renewal of efforts to ensure fitting of vessel monitoring systems on all large-scale industrial fishing vessels operating on the high seas, allowing authorities to monitor their movements; and strengthening of Regional Fisheries Management Organizations. The declaration disappointed campaigners for deep sea conservation by failing to incorporate a proposal by Norway to prohibit unregulated bottom-trawl fishing on the high seas.