Tuna Fisheries Conservation and Management in the Pacific Islands Region

The Korean tuna fishing fleet has a long history of participation in the tuna fisheries of the Western and Central Pacific Ocean (wcpo), the largest tuna fisheries in the world. As one of the largest distant water fishing fleets operating in the wcpo, Korea has a strong interest in maintaining access to both eez s and the high seas, and ensuring sustainability of the region’s tuna stocks. The regulatory environment for tuna fisheries in the wcpo is complex and multi-layered, with regional, sub-regional and national legislation, regulation and policies all affecting tuna fishing vessels and operations. Management of tuna fisheries within Pacific Island eez s is increasingly being tightened, including through the introduction of zone-based management approaches, and Pacific Island countries are also advocating for improved management of tuna fishing in the high seas. While all four primary tuna species in the wcpo are currently considered healthy, catch rates and economic conditions in the southern and tropical longline fisheries are in decline and catch reductions will be necessary to improve catch rates and increase economic returns for longline vessels. Within this context, the Korean distant water fishing fleet will need to strengthen engagement and cooperation with Pacific island States in order to maintain their competitiveness.

Mapping the unjust global impact of harmful fisheries subsidies

Harmful fisheries subsidies contribute to overfishing leading to environmental and societal impacts1. If only fisheries within the subsidising nations’ jurisdiction were affected, then unilateral actions might be sufficient to help safeguard our ocean and the people reliant upon it. However, just as fish move between jurisdictions2, so too do the subsidised fishing fleets targeting them3. As such, the impacts and solutions to subsidies-induced overfishing are matters of international concern. Mapping that impact is therefore key to understanding these concerns and informing multilateral reform. Here we combine existing datasets4–6 to quantify the amount of harmful fisheries subsidies impacting the high seas, domestic and foreign waters, respectively. We estimate that between 24% and 43% of all harmful fisheries subsidies impact foreign waters or the high seas. We show that harmful subsidies primarily originate from countries with high-Human Development Index (HDI), strong fisheries management capacity and relatively sustainable fish stocks, yet disproportionately impact countries with low-HDI, lower management capacity and more vulnerable stocks. Indeed, over 40% of the harmful subsidies impacting low-HDI countries originate from high-HDI countries. This discrepancy between the source of harmful subsidies and the nations that are ultimately impacted is unsustainable and unjust. Policy-makers from all nations must push for effective multilateral subsidies reform. Prohibiting subsidies to distant-water fishing should be prioritised to support equitable and sustainable fisheries worldwide.

Introducing the Seasonal Closure into the CCAMLR Fishery Management Framework: Problems, Methods, and Prospects

In June 2020, China unilaterally announced two seasonal closures on squid fishing in certain areas of the high seas that apply to the Chinese distant water fishing fleets. Such closure refers to the withdrawal of the Chinese distant water fishing fleet from part of the high seas where they regularly operate. It is an innovative conservation measure initiated by a nation-state with the significance for global ocean governance and meeting the requirements from the UN Sustainable Development Goals. This paper is designed to seek the possibility, through a qualitative study and interpretive analysis, of whether such an innovative conservation measure can be introduced into the fishery management in the Southern Ocean, currently mainly under the framework of CCAMLR. This paper attempts to answer some questions with this new introduction. First, whether this kind of seasonal closure is applicable or feasible within the framework of CCAMLR. Second, whether this kind of seasonal closure would infringe upon or disrupt existing regimes, such as marine protected areas (MPAs) created by CCAMLR. Third, how and to what extent such a measure is supported by best scientific evidence so as to reach optimal effectiveness. In this regard, firm support from contracting parties is necessary to enforce the seasonal closure within the coverage of CCAMLR. The paper concludes that the seasonal closure feasible under the CCAMLR legal framework, which, like the measures of MPAs, will facilitate the fulfillment of best scientific evidence and eventually contribute to the SDG-14 progressively in the Southern Ocean.

Why Climate Change and State Subsidies Will Collide to Create Fishery Conflict

Climate change, combined with rising global demand for seafood products, will lead to greater conflict over remaining fisheries. Warming and acidifying oceans are shifting the availability of oxygen and nutrients that are necessary to maintain fish stocks. These changes are likely to increase conflict, both interstate and intrastate, in several important ways. For one, the fish stocks that are already under stress from demand for seafood protein are also shifting location. Most significantly, scarcity will likely draw in greater state involvement in fisheries. As traditional fleets exhaust their territorial waters, domestic political pressure will lead to greater state investment in distant water fishing (DWF) fleets to access fish stocks on the high seas and in the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) of other states. DWF fleets are destabilizing because they can easily access fishing zones with low levels of enforcement. Their industrial scale and low level of transparency means that they are also more likely to engage in Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) fishing activities. States are also more likely to intervene militarily to protect their state-support DWF fleets.

Natural, artificial or imported? Ice supplies for the German distant-water fisheries as an example of renewable vs. fossil-fuel based supplies

From the early decades of the twentieth century the distant-water fishing fleets relied more or less completely on the use of artificially manufactured ice for the preservation of their catches. Large-scale fossil-fuel powered ice factories in the main European fishing ports provided the ice taken onboard trawlers before they left port for the fishing trip. When the fishing grounds of the Barents Sea and the Svalbard region were developed in the 1930s, bunker capacities of trawlers were no longer sufficient for a journey without re-bunkering coal or ice. Northern Norwegian ports therefore became regularly used as bunker stations for coal and ice, with huge natural ice factories being developed in northern Norway for the supply of trawlers. Those with interests in artificial ice production in continental Europe, particularly in Bremerhaven/Geestemünde, started a campaign against the use of natural ice based on the argument that natural ice was unsanitary and would cause bacterial contamination of the fish. Several authorities became involved and finally an expedition by the Reichskuratorium für Technik in der Landwirtschaft was organized to investigate the issue of bacterial contamination of ice manufactured in northern Norway. With the findings of this expedition clearly showing that there was no contamination issue with the natural ice, it became obvious that the whole campaign against natural ice was not guided by quality concerns, but by the commercial interests of German artificial ice producers. In the end, the whole story can be understood as a key example of how a fossil-fuel powered industry tried to push a competitor using a renewable resource (natural ice) out of the market, and how certain authorities were complicit in this attempt.

China

This article examines China’s legislation on distant water fishing as a flag State, which has significant impact on the conservation of marine living resources in the world ocean. After briefly discussing internal and external pressures that the Chinese authorities are facing, the article provides an overview of the latest series of regulations for China’s distant water fishing fleet. It pays particular attention to the adoption of and compliance with the 2020 Rules on the Management of Distant Water Fishing.

After the trawl: Memory and afterlife in the wake of Hull’s distant-water fishing industry

This paper offers an overview of Byrne’s recent research into the economic, social, spatial and cultural consequences of the decline of Hull’s distant-water trawl fishery after the 1976 Cod Wars. The research combines documentary sources with oral history narratives to examine memories of decline and adjustment, at sea and on shore, as a once localised industry turned towards a global arena. In cultural terms, Byrne establishes the longstanding ties between industry, district and workforce in the dockside neighbourhood of Hessle Road, before engaging narratives of fractured place-based relationships to explore the ensuing divorce between a maritime industry and its cultural landscape. Finally, as Hull’s trawl fishery recedes in terms of popular memory, the research examines how fishing heritage is currently represented by groups in the modern city and seeks the ‘right place’ for a fishing past as the city looks to the future.