The DSCC this week urged the South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation (RFMO) to make agreed measures consistent with bottom fishing resolutions. Representing 70 NGOs, the DSCC is an attendance at the first Commission meeting since the Convention entered into force last year in Auckland, New Zealand. The DSCC welcomes the approach towards transparency that SPRFMO negotiations have taken to date, both within the meetings and by publicising and reviewing impact assessments, and informed them that they look forward to a continuance of transparency now that the Convention is in force.
Resolution 66/68 addressed the impacts of bottom fishing on vulnerable marine ecosystems and the long-term sustainability of deep sea fish stocks and the actions called for in the UNGA resolutions, and emphasized the need for full implementation by all States and relevant RFMOs of their commitments under those paragraphs on an urgent basis.
They stressed the importantance that any measures agreed by this Commission are consistent with these resolutions. The United Nations has made it clear that States are not to authorize bottom fishing activities until compliant measures have been adopted and implemented. It is therefore important that deep sea fishing is carried out only when these commitments have been implemented, including the conduct of assessments, and including ensuring the sustainability of deep sea species.
Image courtesy of the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition
