Allocating Fish across Jurisdictions

The world’s fisheries are in a time of grave crisis. Most of the fisheries that have produced bountifully in the past are now overfished, with many species facing commercial extinction. To respond to this situation, the world community adopted the 1995 Straddling and Migratory Fish Stocks Agreement, and since then several regions have adopted innovative regional fishery agreements. The most ambitious of these new agreements is the Convention on the Conservation and Management of Highly Migratory Fish Stocks in the Central and Western Pacific Ocean, which was adopted in Honolulu on September 5, 2000. This treaty, like the 1995 Agreement, adopts the precautionary principle as its main guideline. It requires countries to engage in data collection and data exchanges to promote transparency. It creates a Commission to allocate fish stocks. The Commission must make some decisions by consensus, but for others will utilize a chambered voting system whereby the distant-water fishing countries and the island countries must each agree by an enhanced majority before a decision can be adopted. To provide further protection for each country, the Convention authorizes countries to seek judicial review of any Commission decision if the decision is thought to violate the Convention, or the 1995 Agreement, or the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention. This Convention is now in force, and its operations will be monitored closely to see if its ambitious and important goals can be met. One of the central mission of this Convention and other regional fishery management organizations is to allocate fish among its contracting parties. This paper discuss the criteria that should be considered when making such allocation decisions. ******************* Worldwide Crisis in Fisheries Our generation has awakened to a worldwide crisis in fisheries that demands immediate and urgent attention. The decimation of fish populations around the globe has been well documented, but a few examples help emphasize the urgency of the present situation: 1 David E. Pitt, Despite Gaps, Data Leave Little Doubt that Fish Are in Peril, N.Y. Times,