TL: GREENPEACE MATERIALS - UN FISH CONFERENCE SO: Greenpeace International (GP) DT: August 11, 1995 Keywords: environment greenpeace fisheries oceans conferences / igc:mgianni en.dolphinnet 1:17 PM Aug 11, 1995 Subject: Greenpeace International Statement, background materials including a brief analysis of the treaty adopted by the UN Conference, and press release (3 & 4 August) from the final session of the United Nations Conference on Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks (24 July-4 August, 1995) From: Matthew Gianni, Greenpeace International CLOSING STATEMENT BY GREENPEACE INTERNATIONAL TO THE UN CONFERENCE ON STRADDLING FISH STOCKS AND HIGHLY MIGRATORY FISH STOCKS 4 August, 1995 Thank-you, Mr. Chair, for the opportunity to make a final statement to this Conference. Like others, we congratulate you on the extraordinary efforts that you have brought to bear on bringing these negotiations to a conclusion. Frankly, Greenpeace is disappointed that this treaty is not stronger than it is, and that is certainly inadequate to the task of reversing the decline in world fisheries that is so evident today, even insofar as straddling and highly migratory fish stocks are concerned. The high seas enforcement measures that so many delegations have highlighted as the centerpiece of this Agreement may serve to improve the management of fisheries on the high seas. But, enforcement will only work if the measures being enforced are sufficiently stringent to ensure fisheries conservation. Further, any reduction in high seas fishing as a result of this Agreement will inevitably result in increases pressure inside the Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs). Distant water fishing fleets, and the countries whose flags they fly, will no doubt step up efforts to seek access to fish stocks inside EEZs, particularly in the waters of developing countries. In this regard, Greenpeace has serious concerns over the qualifications to the application of the conservation measures contained in this Agreement inside the 200-mile limits. Nevertheless, we see seeds of hope for future action contained in this treaty - in particular with respect to the requirements to collect and share data, the precautionary approach, the general principles for fisheries conservation, and the recognition of the interests of subsistence and artisanal fishworkers. Though the general principles for fisheries conservation lack specificity, we hope that, at a minimum, these principles will serve as the standards against which detailed practical measures shall be developed and implemented at the regional and national levels. For example, this treaty contains very detailed obligations with respect to boarding, inspection and enforcement on the high seas. We believe that a similar degree of detail needs to apply to the implementation of such provisions as the requirement to protect biodiversity [in the marine environment] and the prevention and elimination of excess fishing capacity. We believe on the key issue of selective fishing, governments have failed. The obligation to use selective fishing gear and techniques only "to the extent practicable" will do little to solve one of the most pressing problems in fisheries today -- the extraordinarily high levels of bycatch, waste and discards. On the subject of transparency, Mr. Chair you referred to the constructive role of NGOs in the work of this Conference in your statement today. It would be ironic, to say the least, if the procedures related to transparency in this treaty would allow the continued exclusion of NGOs from fisheries decision-making processes at the regional and national levels. Mr. Chair, in our view the work of the international community has only begun. A new window of opportunity has been opened. The treaty adopted today is a start, but far more comprehensive efforts and action by governments at all levels are required. Partly as a result of this Conference, NGOs worldwide have come together on fisheries issues as never before. Fishworkers, environmental and other NGOs have managed to find considerable common ground from which to advance a broad range of mutual concerns. Issues such as global food security, the rights of fishworkers, and the need to protect critical habitats and the marine environment generally are areas of common interest. Greenpeace intends to continue to work together with other NGOs to pressure governments for fundamental reforms to address the failures of fisheries development, management, trade, investment, subsidies and other issues of concern in fisheries worldwide. Again, Mr. Chair, thank-you for this opportunity to speak and, more generally, for the opportunity to constructively participate in the work of this Conference over the last two years. *************** QUESTIONS, ANSWERS AND BRIEF ANALYSIS OF KEY ELEMENTS OF THE TREATY ON STRADDLING FISH STOCKS AND HIGHLY MIGRATORY FISH STOCKS BY THE GREENPEACE INTERNATIONAL FISHERIES CAMPAIGN 3 August 1995 DOES THIS TREATY COVER ALL FISHING IN THE WORLD? No. The rules only apply to straddling and highly migratory (target) fish stocks. They apply inside and outside 200 mile zones, throughout the range of the target stock(s) -- or as is also said, covering the "biological unity" of the stock(s). However the rules do apply indirectly to species associated within the same ecosystem as the target species. Fishing for straddling and highly migratory stocks makes up less than one-fifth of all marine fish catches. WHEN IS THIS TREATY LIKELY TO COME INTO FORCE? After its adoption on August 4th, it goes before the 50th UN General Assembly, in November or December, for a more formal adoption and opening for signature. Thereafter, it might be 1-2 years before the required 30 countries (Article 39) have ratified the treaty. In the meantime, there is a provisional application measure (Article 40), which requires an affirmative action by a State, pending formal ratification, for it to be bound, at least in spirit, by the Treaty's provisions. WHAT ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT THINGS THIS TREATY DOES? * CONSERVATION STANDARDS: The treaty has set down a number of important conservation principles in Article 5 which require states, among other things, to minimize waste, discards and bycatch, protect marine biodiversity, take measures to prevent or eliminate excess fishing capacity and take into account the interests of artisanal fishers. However, all of these principles lack specificity. For example, the requirement to protect biodiversity rtl5)dsoscyh odiversity is, how it is to be protected and what countries are to do to protect it. Similarly, the Conference has failed to deal forcefully with bycatch and waste caused by unselective gear and techniques. To minimize bycatch, which is the requirement (Article 5(f)), countries are only called to develop and use selective fishing gear only "to the extent practicable." As one final example, the issue of overcapacity is mentioned (Article 5(h)), but there are absolutely no obligations or any blueprint to achieve any meaningful action on this critical issue. * ENFORCEMENT, COMPLIANCE, AND DISPUTE SETTLEMENT: The treaty sets down rules for the enforcement of general principles of conservation and management measures on the high seas; and provides mechanisms for the peaceful settlement of fishing disputes between distant water fishing states and coastal states. Many governments take the position that high seas enforcement measures set down in the treaty are the centerpiece of this agreement. Greenpeace disagrees. If the conservation provisions of the treaty are not sufficiently stringent (and Greenpeace believes they are not) then the enforcement provisions of this treaty will not be sufficient to guarantee the conservation of fish stocks. The fact is that within the 200 mile zones, coastal states have had full authority to board, inspect, arrest, detain, and penalize vessels that have broken fisheries regulations since the widespread adoption of the 200 mile zone in the mid-1970s. In spite of full enforcement authority, coastal states have generally not been able to prevent the decline and collapse of many of the world's important commercial fisheries. * DATA COLLECTION: Article 14 and Annex 1 require the collection and sharing of data on the impacts of fishing on straddling and highly migratory fish stocks. It's about time! Although it is true that in international law this represents a step forward, the fact is that you cannot even begin to hope to manage a fishery without such basic information as how much fish is being caught, by whom, where and when. This has been one of the fundamental flaws with fisheries management for decades. But good data alone will not guarantee sound fisheries conservation and management. For example, fisheries failures in waters across the north Atlantic from Canada to Europe are particularly noteworthy in this regard, since this area has probably the greatest single concentration of fisheries research, data collection and management institutions in the world. All too often the recommendations of fisheries scientists in the region are ignored or overruled by decision makers acting on the basis of short-term economic and political interests. * PRECAUTIONARY APPROACH: The treaty sets out a new concept in fisheries management called the Precautionary Approach. This new approach to conservation and management requires that scientific uncertainty be taken into consideration in setting catch levels; it requires the conservation of other species in the ecosystem in addition to those commercially fished; it calls for protection of marine habitats of special concern; it calls for the application of precautionary conservation measures in new and exploratory fisheries. From an environmental perspective this can be seen as a significant step forward in many respects. One of the chief deficiencies in the way the precautionary approach is set out in this treaty is that it requires states to manage fisheries for maximum sustainable yield (MSY). Fishing at MSY typically means reducing the size of a previously unfished stock to substantially lower levels of abundance, sometimes by as much as two-thirds. This enables fishers to maximize economic returns while (theoretically) allowing the stock to reproduce without declining further and continue to yield the same level of catch year after year. It sounds good in theory but it has rarely worked in practice to conserve fish stocks and maintain sustainable fisheries. The treaty would require states to leave a few extra fish in the water, but still does not address the essential problem of the impact on the other species in the ecosystem overall when you take fifty percent or more of the fish out of the sea. MEANWHILE, IN THE REAL WORLD... Big business fishing carried on unabated as governments haggled over words, phrases and paragraphs at the United Nations. Politically-powerful sectors of the fishing industry are the main reason governments have ignored the big issues during the UN talks. The following insight on the current state of the world's fishing industry -- partially bank-rolled by some of the governments sitting around the negotiation table -- is taken from the July 1995 edition of Fisheries News International (FNI). Too many boats are chasing too few fish. The treaty compels countries to "take measures to prevent or eliminate overfishing or excess fishing capacity". Yet, the signs are that the industry has no intentions of letting up and countries back at home lack the political will to stop it. * Front page of Fishing News International is a gigantic 50-ton haul of oceanic redfish on a trawl deck of an Icelandic freezer fishing in international waters south-west of Iceland. In the same fishery, Icelandic, Russian and Japanese trawlers fight for room to set their trawls with net opening circumferences of up to 3000 metres (the equivalent of 10 New York City blocks wide by two Empire State Buildings high). FNI reports a Russian trawler steaming over an Icelandic net and a Japanese trawler ripping away a Russian trawler's entire net. * Five advertisements for ship building corporations based in Spain (3), USA and France appear in the July edition of FNI. One advertemtays: "Give yourself an unfair advantage. Competition on the fishing grounds has never been tougher than it is today. Advancements in technology, equipment and fishing methods are changing the way the world goes fishing". * A new 66-metre-long factory trawler, the Don Julio, rolled off the docks in Chile "which could bring a new era in Chilean pelagic catching operations", according to FNI. The first combined purse-seiner and mid-water trawler to be built in Chile, it is licensed to fish its multi-million ton catches of jack mackerel for canning, fish meal and surimi production. FNI: "In previous years, Chilean fishermen could only look on while Russian fleets up to 12 a breast towed their trawls through jack mackerel outside the Chilean 200-mile limit!" * The last of a massive run of 50 factory trawlers built for Russian fishing companies by Norwegian, Spanish and German shipyards was delivered to its owner, the Sakhalin Region Fishing Farms Union. "Advanced fish factories and the ability to catch around 110 tons of mintay -- a pollock-like white fish -- make this class of ship highly desirable in Russia", says FNI. * Shrimp processing factories are replacing cod plants in Atlantic Canada. Canadian landings of coldwater shrimp skyrocketed from 2728 tonnes in 1982 to about 33,400 tonnes last year, according to FNI. Canada has turned its processing and marketing efforts to shrimp after the disastrous overfishing of cod caused a crash in the stock and the fishery closed down in 1992. The Canadian factories import most of the shrimp from far- flung tropical shrimp fisheries and shrimp farms. Recent FAO reports show shrimp fisheries have a higher percentage of bycatch than any fishery in the world. * The international fishing industry is invited to join their South African, Namibian and Mozambique contemporaries at "Fish Africa 95", a conference intended to open a gateway into Southern African fisheries resources. "With enviable marine resources, and with new South Africa now fully reconnected with the World economy, Southern Africa today is a market that no international manufacturer of fishing and fish processing equipment can afford to ignore. And, with aquaculture set to expand rapidly in the area, major opportunities are opening up for suppliers to this industry as well", an advertisement appearing in FNI states. FNI reports that companies from Thailand, Malaysia, Poland, France, Iceland and the UK will join others from South Africa. * As Greenpeace New Zealand awaits a High Court decision after taking New Zealand fisheries minister Doug Kidd to court for allowing massive overfishing of orange roughy -- popular in US supermarkets -- FNI reports that the South Island Deep Water Fishing Co is negotiating the sale of one trawler it used to fish the now commercially-extinct orange roughy stock. An unnamed Chinese buyer is interested. * A new Norwegian cod trawler has been built "taking advantage of Norway's recovering cod stocks". Barents Sea cod stocks crashed in the 1960s. Now the stocks are finally showing signs of recovery, fishing effort is beginning again. "With present cod prospects looking good in Norway -- at a time when competitors Canada and Iceland are facing new cod lows -- a number of owners are expected to upgrade their ships or use their existing quotas to build", FNI says. ...... And still it goes on. More boats bring increased competition and more sophisticated technology to find scarcer fish stocks. Industry's unrelenting race for dwindling fish stocks is not hidden. Neither is the government lack of will to end it. **************** PRESS RELEASE NEW FISH TREATY TOO WEAK TO SAVE PLUMMETING FISH STOCKS: GREENPEACE THE UNITED NATIONS, NEW YORK -- August 3, 1995 Greenpeace said today that a new international fisheries treaty will not stem the global fisheries crisis and will have little effect on destructive fishing worldwide. Governments refused to put the brakes on the expansion of high- tech fishing fleets. They also backed down on strong measures to require environmentally safe and selective fishing gear that would stop the appalling waste of 27 million tons of discarded fish each year. "This treaty represents a collective failure on the part of governments to tackle the big issues," said Greenpeace campaigner and former fisherman Matthew Gianni. "The fisheries crisis is like a runaway freight train that governments are trying to stop with a traffic light," Gianni said. "What's even worse is that most governments and industry are locked onto the green signal." This was an unprecedented chance, squandered by governments, to turn around overfishing and bring the fishing industry into balance with the environment. However, the treaty offers some seeds of hope. These include important conservation measures such as a requirement to use a precautionary approach in fisheries management, applying stricter enforcement measures for fishing on the high seas, and the collection of catch statistics to assess the impacts of fishing on the ocean environment. These seeds will fail to take root if governments don't force major changes in the way big industry fishes and stop bankrolling the fishing industry with some fifty-billion dollars a year in tax payr-und subsidies. Greenpeace believes that rules governing the fishing industry should be applied to all stocks wherever they are fished. At best, this treaty covers less than one-fifth of world fish catches. Greenpeace will continue to pressure for fundamental fisheries reform. On Wednesday, Greenpeace activists blockaded one of 55 factory trawlers preparing to steam from Seattle for one of the world's biggest fisheries -- Alaskan pollock in the Bering Sea. "Where governments have failed, Greenpeace will hold them accountable," Gianni said. For more information, please contact: Matthew Gianni, San Francisco CA, USA - tel: (1) 415 512 9025 Mike Hagler, Auckland, New Zealand - tel: 64 9 445 2548 Helene Bours, Belgium - tel: 32 41 68 68 51 Clif Curtis, Washington DC, USA - tel: (1) 202 462 1177 Traci Romine, Sao Paulo, Brazil - tel: 55 11 282 5500 Juan Carlos Cardenas, Santiago, Chile - tel: 56 2 737 8140 Desley Mather, London, England - 44 171 833 0600 or the Greenpeace office nearest you ------- end -------