The United Nations Open-ended Informal Consultative Process on Oceans and the Law of the Sea (UNICPOLOS) again failed to recommend a moratorium on bottom trawling at their sixth meeting, held in New York, 6-11 June.
Despite support from several countries, the move to recommend a global moratorium was blocked by the EU and Iceland.
Support for a global moratorium was led by New Zealand, Fiji, Palau and Nigeria, while Chile argued for an ‘interim prohibition’ on bottom trawling outside areas covered by Regional Fisheries Management Organisations. Several EU countries, including Sweden and Germany, also spoke out strongly for a moratorium, according to Monica Verbeek of the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition/Seas at Risk. But they were blocked by Spain, supported by Portugal and, finally, France, said Verbeek. She expressed disappointment that Spain opposed the moratorium in order to protect the interests of 19 Spanish vessels fishing off the Patagonian Shelf. Iceland also opposed a global moratorium, preferring regional measures to protect deep-sea corals and other vulnerable ecosystems against bottom trawling.
The discussions went on into the middle of the night on the penultimate day of the meeting, with delegates trying to reach a compromise on the wording of text relating to bottom trawling. In the end, the EU succeeded in removing all mention of bottom trawling and the watered-down text proposed that the UN General Assembly: “calls for states to urgently accelerate their cooperation in establishing interim targeted protection mechanisms for vulnerable marine ecosystems in regions where they have an interest in conservation and management of fisheries resources.”
The UN General Assembly will reconsider the issue of bottom trawling in the autumn. Whether the UNICPOLOS outcome will again dissuade them from declaring a global moratorium on bottom trawling remains uncertain. But Verbeek fears that delegates may decide to stall until 2006, when the UN is due to review its Fish Stocks Agreement.