With the sustainable fisheries negotiations resuming next week, below is a compilation of the latest news from recent RFMO meetings and their progress towards implementation of United Nations General Assembly Resolution 61/105 paragraphs 83-86 on the protection of vulnerable marine ecosystems from high seas bottom fishing.

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Source: WWF

Governance of the world’s oceans is characterized by a patchwork of organizations tasked with the conservation and management of living marine resources. Formal co-operation between States through Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs) dates back to at least the 1920s and there are now 16 RFMOs with a mandate to establish binding management measures for fisheries resources. While some gaps remain, particularly with respect to discrete, high seas fish stocks, the vast majority of the marine fisheries resources of the world’s oceans are under the control of at least one, if not more than one, RFMO.

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Still uncovering the mysteries of the deep – Second Addendum to Political Momentum is Building Rapidly

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This paper briefly assesses progress toward meeting the conservation mandates in the UN Fish Stocks Agreement (FSA) with respect to controlling destructive fishing and protecting deep ocean habitats beyond areas of national jurisdiction, and recommends actions to protect such vulnerable habitats.

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The Deep Sea Conservation Coalition welcomes paragraphs 73 and 74 of the UN General Assembly Resolution on Sustainable Fisheries which call for a review of progress on actions by States and Regional Fisheries Management Organizations (RFMOs) or arrangements to address the effect of destructive fishing practices, including bottom trawling, on vulnerable marine ecosystems. As the high seas bottom trawling review commences in 2006, the DeepSea Conservation Coalition (DSCC) considers it imperative that clear benchmarks belaid down to illustrate what would constitute effective implementation of measures to give effect to these paragraphs.

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Addendum to Political Momentum is Building Rapidly

In April 2005, the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition (DSCC) published the paper, A moratorium on deep-sea bottom trawling on the high seas: political momentum is building rapidly. The paper described the growing number of States which support United Nations (UN) action on this issue, and/or which have taken steps to curb the problem in their own areas of jurisdiction. Since this time, momentum has continued to grow, and this paper serves as an addendum to the original publication, highlighting the global reach of support for a UN General Assembly moratorium on high seas bottom trawlin.

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We define habitat-forming deep-sea corals as those families of octocorals, hexacorals, and stylasterids with species that live deeper than 200 m, with a majority of species exhibiting complex branching morphology and a sufficient size to provide substrata or refugia to associated species. We present 2,649 records from eleven institutions on eight habitat-forming deep-sea coral families, including octocorals in the families Coralliidae, Isididae, Paragorgiidae and Primnoidae, hexacorals in the families Antipathidae, Oculinidae and Caryophylliidae, and stylasterids in the family Stylasteridae. The data are ranked according to record quality. We compare family range and distribution as predicted by historical records to the family extent as informed by recent collections aboard the National Oceanic of Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Office of Ocean Exploration 2002 Gulf of Alaska Seamount Expedition (GOASEX). We present a map of one of these families, the Primnoidae.

Available in English.