Marine Protected Areas, Deep-Sea Fishing, Tsunami-Relief on the Agenda
WASHINGTON and ROME, March 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Responding to management
challenges posed by new fishing practices, considering the potential
contributions of marine protected areas to sustainable fishing, and finding
ways to responsibly rebuild fisheries in tsunami-struck countries are among
the issues being discussed by FAO's Committee on Fisheries (COFI), which is
meeting this week at the Organization's Rome headquarters.
Over 300 participants are attending the meeting, which opened yesterday
and runs through 11 March. Attendees include governmental delegations,
representatives of other UN agencies and observers from inter-governmental and
non-governmental organizations.
COFI is one of the committees of FAO's Council and oversees the work of
the Organization's Fisheries Department. It also makes recommendations to
governments, regional fisheries bodies and others involved in fisheries
management, and has served as a forum for the negotiation of global
instruments related to fisheries management.
Ten years towards responsible fisheries
Discussion on COFI's first day centered on implementation of the FAO Code
of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, a set of guidelines for responsible
fishing adopted by FAO's membership in 1995. COFI's theme this year is "Ten
years towards responsible fisheries."
Currently, most FAO members report having national fishing policies or
legislation in place that either totally or partially conform to the Code,
according to an FAO presentation made yesterday.
Yet while more advanced fisheries management practices are being more
widely used worldwide, the presentation added, many fish stocks continue to be
either fully- or over exploited, as described in a new FAO report launched
yesterday, The State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture.
Deep-sea fishing: a new management challenge
Also on the agenda this week: emerging fishing practices that pose new
management challenges -- for example, deep-sea fishing of bottom-dwelling
stocks, only recently possible on a commercial scale as a result of new
technologies.
According to an FAO report to be presented tomorrow, deep-sea fisheries
resources are particularly vulnerable to overexploitation due to their low
productivity -- the fish reproduce slowly and take a long time to grow to
maturity.
The report also says that not enough is known about the population biology
of deep-sea stocks and the impacts of fishing on sea-bottom habitats, making
responsible management difficult. Compounding matters is the fact that many
deepwater species are found on the high seas, where governance is particularly
complex.
Marine protected areas
Meeting participants will also discuss the pros and cons of marine
protected areas (MPAs) in fisheries management.
MPAs are marine reserves where fishing and other human activities are
either prohibited or strictly controlled.
Both the 1992 Convention for Biological Diversity and the 2002 World
Summit on Sustainable Development called for the creation of MPAs as a means
of protecting underwater biodiversity and maintaining high productivity in
fisheries.
According to a report prepared for COFI, the currently available
scientific information does suggest that MPAs could help achieve some
management objectives -- but only if they expressly address fisheries-specific
goals and constraints and are implemented alongside, not instead of,
conventional measures.
The report cautions that, "if designed with incomplete scientific
understanding and lack of attention to the needs of fisheries and to existing
management measures, MPAs could be ineffective or even counter-productive."
Still, the potential of MPAs as a complementary measure for fisheries
management is very high, the report concluded, adding: "It is urgent to test
MPAs scientifically across a large range of situations in order to clarify
potentials, shortcomings and conditions of success for fisheries."
Tsunami-relief
FAO will also brief COFI participants on the situation of fisheries in
countries hit by the 2004 Asian tsunami and efforts to rebuild them.
The Organization is emphasizing the need to target assistance to small-
scale fishers and aquaculturalists as well as to avoid building up fishing
overcapacity as a result of relief efforts, which would be detrimental to the
sustainable use of the resources.
Ministerial meeting to follow COFI
Following COFI, a group of national fisheries ministers will take part in
a Ministerial meeting on 12 March to further discuss tsunami-relief as well as
how to deepen international cooperation on combating illegal, unreported and
unregulated fishing.
SOURCE Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
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Related links:
http://www.fao.org/english/newsroom
CONTACT:
Michael Hage, Regional Information Officer of
the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations,
+1-202-653-0011, or Michael.hage@fao.org
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