October 21, 2013 — Maximum sustainable yield, bycatch and discards, exclusive economic zones, essential fish habitat. If you’ve ever read one of these terms and wondered what it meant, you’re in luck. In each issue of Oceana magazine, fisheries scientist and Oceana board member Dr. Daniel Pauly breaks down a commonly used fisheries term. In the recent issue, he discusses distant-water fishing fleets and how they affect overfishing:
Distant-water fishing fleets are the fishing vessels that operate within the 200 mile Exclusive Economic Zones (EEZs) of other countries, and less often further offshore, in what is known as the high seas. The flags that these vessels fly are important here, because there are countries – Belize, Liberia and Panama come to mind – that will lend them so-called ‘flags of convenience’ for a few bucks. According to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), distant-water fleets must be offered to take the ‘surplus’ of fish not caught by a given country in its EEZ, against a fee that is part of a negotiated ‘access agreement.’