Assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing
| Author | Deji Sasegbon |
| Pages | 71-83 |
S.S.L.R. Port State Measures and Unreported Fishing Vol.2
71
Assessing the strengths and weaknesses of the
Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent,
Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and
Unregulated Fishing
Deji Sasegbon
Introduction
he world’s fisheries are on the brink of collapse. It is estimated that 75
per cent are significantly depleted, over exploited or fully exploited
1.
Behind these stark figures there lie the stories of numerous families
whose livelihoods have all but been destroyed by the rapid dwindling of the
once-bountiful ocean resources. One of the most important factors
undermining the efficacy of global co-operation and management of
straddling and migratory stocks and fisheries on the high seas is the
pervasiveness of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing 2. These
phenomena are the target of a recent UN Food and Agricultural Organisation
instrument which seeks to make a contribution to the achievement of
sustainability in global fisheries. As per the above question, this essay will
begin by examining the strengths and weaknesses of this recently approved
Instrument (the Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter and
Eliminate Illegal, Unreported Fishing – not yet in force). Subsequently, in
addressing the second part of the question, it will be argued that the drafters
of the instrument can be said to have treated the problem of Illegal,
Unreported and Unregulated fishing as undifferentiated in at least two
respects: by directing every single measure contained within the agreement
simply at Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated fishing, notwithstanding the
fact that each of these types of fishing calls for its own unique solution3 and,
by adopting an excessively narrow instrument (concerned solely with Port
State measures) which overlooks the fact that each type of fishing, be it Illegal,
Unreported or Unregulated, is itself multi-layered and complex, and requiring
an approach which, as well as being unique, is also broad, thereby targeting all
1 K. Rigg, R. Parmentier, D. Currie, HALTING IUU FISHING: ENFORCING
INTERNATIONAL FISHERIES AGREEMENTS (2003) citation imcompl eted
2 Ibid.
3 A. Serdy Simplistic or Surreptitious? Beyond the Flawed Concept(s) of IUU Fishing in
SUSTAINABLE FISHERIES: MULTI-LEVEL APPROACHES TO A GLO BAL PROBLEM pg.
253-279 (American Fisheries Society, 2011)
T
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