Law lecturer participates in UN Fish Stocks Review
6 September 2016
In May this year Dr Richard Caddell, lecturer in law and a Senior Research Associate at the Netherlands Institute for the Law of the Sea, Utrecht University participated at the resumed Review Conference of the UN Fish Stocks Agreement.
The Agreement, which was concluded in 1995 and entered into force in 2001, is a key source of rights and obligations over the global regulation of straddling stocks (those that migrate through or are located in more than one area of national jurisdiction) and highly migratory fish stocks. The third instalment of the Review Conference was a week-long summit on fisheries governance convened at the UN Headquarters Building in New York, in which representatives from state parties, regional fisheries management organisations and other global and regional regulatory bodies review progress towards meeting the objectives of the Agreement.
Dr Caddell presented new research on the regulation of new fisheries at the event, outlining the way obligations towards new fishing opportunities have been implemented, an increasingly significant issue in modern fisheries governance given that many stocks are becoming increasingly mobile and displaced as a result of the impacts of climate change.
The outcomes of the event, which were published in August 2016, provide a series of recommendations to states to improve fisheries governance, address the problems of illegal fishing and to further advance the practices of regional fisheries management organisations.