The 2018 Fisheries White Paper, the Fisheries Act 2020 and their international legal dimension

The 2018 Fisheries White Paper and the Fisheries Act 2020 were designed to govern United Kingdom (UK) fisheries management in the post-Brexit era irrespective of whether the UK and the European Union (EU) succeeded in settling their differences on fisheries and other matters that for much of 2020 made it uncertain whether the Trade and Cooperation Agreement could be concluded. This article considers several international legal issues raised by the White Paper and Fisheries Act, including the choices made by the UK as to which regional fisheries management organisations to (re)join now that the EU no longer speaks for the UK within them, and the treaty processes for doing so, before moving on to further matters given only sketchy treatment in, or omitted altogether from, those documents, on which a firmer position ought to have been taken. Lastly, a new problem apparent for the first time in the Fisheries Act is discussed: navigational freedom of foreign fishing vessels in the UK's exclusive economic zone, and a missed opportunity to legislate a related evidential presumption that would assist future prosecutions for illegal fishing.

United States Law, Marine Protected Areas, and Challenges to “Lasting Protection”

This contribution to this special edition focuses on United States practice in relation to marine protected areas (MPAs) particularly in relation to the protection of large marine ecosystems. The article describes how MPAs are designated under the National Marine Sanctuaries Act, the Antiquities Act, and the Magnuson-Stevens Fisheries Act. The article also identifies interactions between state and federal government in the management of MPAs as well as among nations. The article concludes with a discussion of the vulnerability of MPAs in the United States to resource development focused political forces.

Sustaining Canadian marine biodiversity: Policy and statutory progress

A 2012 Expert Panel Report on marine biodiversity by the Royal Society of Canada (RSC) concluded that Canada faced significant challenges in achieving sustainable fisheries, regulating aquaculture, and accounting for climate change. Relative to many countries, progress by Canada in fulfilling international obligations to sustain biodiversity was deemed poor. To track progress by Canada since 2012, the RSC struck a committee to track policy and statutory developments on matters pertaining to marine biodiversity and to identify policy challenges, and leading options for implementation that lie ahead. The report by the Policy Briefing Committee is presented here. It concluded that Canada has made moderate to good progress in some areas, such as prioritization of oceans stewardship and strengthening of the evidentiary use of science in decision-making. Key statutes were strengthened through amendments, including requirements to rebuild depleted fisheries ( Fisheries Act) and new means of creating marine protected areas ( Oceans Act) that allowed Canada to exceed its international obligation to protect 10% of coastal and marine areas by 2020. Public release of mandate letters has strengthened ministerial accountability. However, little or no progress has been made in reducing regulatory conflict with Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO), decreasing ministerial discretion under the Fisheries Act, clarifying the role of science in sustainable fisheries policy, and accounting for climate change. Five future policy challenges are identified: (1) Ensure climate change impacts and projections are incorporated into ocean-related decision making and planning processes; (2) Resolve DFO’s regulatory conflict to conserve and exploit biodiversity; (3) Limit ministerial discretionary power in fisheries management decisions; (4) Clarify ambiguities in how the Precautionary Approach is applied in sustainable fisheries policy; and (5) Advance and implement marine spatial planning. Since 2012, there has been progress in recovering and sustaining the health of Canada’s oceans. Failure to further strengthen biodiversity conservation threatens the capacity of Canada’s oceans to provide ecosystem services that contribute to the resilience of marine life and the well-being of humankind. Unprecedented and enduring changes in the ocean caused by climate change have made the achievement of meaningful progress all the more urgent.

Fishery Audit 2019

Healthy fish populations are critical to healthy ecosystems: they feed communities, support economies and are essential to our survival. But our oceans are facing growing threats and greater uncertainty. Overfishing, climate change, habitat destruction and pollution are degrading the underwater world and putting the marine life we all depend upon at risk. Much is at stake, as the status quo is demonstrably not working. The number of stocks in the healthy zone has decreased since Oceana Canada released its 2018 Fishery Audit, and the number in the critical zone has increased — including crab and shrimp stocks. This isparticularly worrying if the depletion of crustaceans becomes a trend, as the value of Canada’s seafood industry depends heavily on them. Progress on implementing rebuilding plans remains slow and many critically depleted stocks, including northern cod, are still without a plan. As well, Fisheries and Oceans Canada (DFO) has not yet indicated how and by when it will collect adequate catch monitoring information, needed to measure and manage bycatch (the incidental catch of non-target fish) in all Canadian commercial fisheries. Meanwhile, only two of the 11 recommendations from the 2018 Fishery Audit have been implemented. DFO has made some progress since the last Fishery Audit was released. In 2019, DFO published more information to help assess fish stock health, and some elements of fishery monitoring became more transparent. DFO also implemented some of the recommendations from the 2016 Auditor General report on sustainable fisheries, including developing timelines and priorities for rebuilding plans for depleted fish populations. Most importantly, a modernized Fisheries Act became law in June 2019. For the first time in the Act’s history, rebuilding plans are now required for depleted fish populations. The government has committed more than $100 million over five years to assess and rebuild fish stocks. This brings Canada into the group of nations with modern fisheries laws and could signal a historic turning point in the health of Canadian fisheries. The impact of the new Act will depend on the strength and pace of regulations, currently under development. The regulations will outline what rebuilding plans must include, and Oceana Canada is advocating that, at a minimum, they should specify a timeline and target, aimed at rebuilding stocks to healthy levels. In the year ahead, the federal government must develop strong and effective regulations to support the rebuilding provisions in the Fisheries Act and accelerate the implementation and enforcement of existing policies. Fortunately, there is a strong base of support for new regulations to rebuild stocks, new funding commitments and much-needed increases in DFO’s science capacity to get the job done. We have the tools needed to modernize Canada’s approach to fisheries management and rebuild fish populations, and Canadians want to see this happen. In a recent Abacus Data market research survey, 98 per cent of Canadians said it was important that the federal government work to rebuild abundant fish populations. If the government fails to take these actions, we can expect the number of healthy stocks to continue to decline and depleted populations will fail to recover, impoverishing the oceans and the coastal communities who depend on them.

Quantifying Restoration Offsets at a Nuclear Power Plant in Canada

In Canada, the Fisheries Act requires all water takers to avoid, mitigate and offset fish losses. To satisfy the act’s requirements, operators of power plants are required to undertake habitat restoration projects to compensate for fish impinged and entrained at cooling water intake structures. Scaling the quantity of restoration needed, and measuring whether adequate compensation has been achieved, requires a metric that expresses the losses and gains in comparable units. Development of such a metric is especially difficult in the case of power plants, because the losses often consist of a mix of species and life stages that are very different from those produced by technically feasible restoration projects. This paper documents the method that has been developed for quantifying offsets for impingement and entrainment at the Bruce Generating Stations on the eastern shore of Lake Huron, and demonstrates how the method is being used to estimate the offset to be provided by removal of a dam on the nearby Saugeen River.

PENERAPAN SANKSI PENGEBOMAN IKAN MENURUT UNDANG-UNDANG NO. 45 TAHUN 2009 TENTANG PERIKANAN DI PERAIRAN HALMAHERA UTARA

Catching fish with fish bombs is against the law, in accordance with the regulations on legal sanctions for fish bombings stated in Law No. 45 of 2009 concerning Amendments to Law No. 31 of 2004 concerning Fisheries, in Article 85 fish catchers who damage the sustainability of fish resources in the NKRI fishery region can be sentenced to a maximum of five years in prison and a maximum fine of two billion rupiah. The research objective was to determine the inhibiting factors of the application of fish bombing sanctions according to the Fisheries Act in North Halmahera waters. The method used in this study is normative juridical research, with a statutory approach. The inhibiting factors are the lack of legal awareness of the fishermen community, due to economic factors - to improve the welfare of fishermen, as well as the lack of patrol boats for supervision in the Halut waters by the Halut Water Police Unit, so there is a need for coordination among institutions other than Sat Polair Halut, namely the Marine Service and Fisheries, also the community itself.