A/42/427
English
Page 263
2.2 Fisheries Managment
24. World Fisheries have been expanding since the Second World War, with the global catch rising at a steady 6-7 per cent annually from 20 million to 65 million tons between 1950 and 1969. But after 1970, as more and more steers were depleted, the average annual growth in catches I to only about. 1 per cent. (Bee Table 10-1.) With conventional management practices, the growth era in fisheries is over. Even assuming restored productivity in now depleted stocks, and an increased harvest from underutilized fisheries. FAO sees only a gradual increase in catches. perhaps rising from current. levels of over 80 million tons to about 100 million. This does not augur well for future food security, especially in low income countries where fish a principal source of animal protein and where millions secure their livelihoods from fisheries activities.[1]
25. Overexploitation threatens many stocks as economic resources. Several of the world's largest fisheries – the Peruvian anchovets, several North Atlantic herring stocks, and the Californian sardine have collapsed following periods of heavy fishing. In some of the areas affected by these collapses, and in other rich fisheries such as the Gulf of Thailand and off West Africa,-heavy fishing has been followed by marked changes species composition.[2] The reasons for these changes are not well understood, and more research is needed into the of marine resources to exploitation so that managers can receive better scientific advice. Greater support for such work is urgently needed, and this support must include additional assistance to developing countries in increasing; their research capacity and their knowledge of their own resources.
26. One factor leading to the establishment of extended EEZs was the concern of coastal states, both industrialized and developing, over the depletion of fisheries off their coasts. A large number of conventions had been established covering most major fisheries, but they proved inadequate in most cases. Participating countries were in general unable to overcome the difficulties of allocating shares to limited common resources. Improved management was seen as an urgent need, and open access was perceived as the main obstacle to it.
27. The advent of extended EEZs under the Law of the Sea Convention was expected to solve or at least alleviate the problem. Coastal states were required to introduce effective conservation and management of the living resources in their EEZs. They could also control the activities of foreign fishermen and develop their own fisheries.
28. Industrial countries have been much more successful in doing this than developing countries. In the north-west Atlantic, the annual catch by long-range fleets has declined from over 2 million tons before 1974 to around a quarter of a million tons in 1983, and the share of the catch taken by the United States and Canada has risen from under 50 per cent to over 90 per cent.
- ↑ E.P. Eckholm, Down to Earth (London: Pluto Press, Ltd., 1982).
- ↑ J.A. Gulland and S. Garcia, 'Observed Patterns in Multispecies Fisheries,' in R.M. May (ed.), Exploitation of Marine Communities (Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1984); FAO, 'Review of the State of World Fishery Resources', Fisheries Circular 710 (rev. 4), Rome. 1985.
