Authors: Ina Tessnow-von Wysocki, Rachel Nichols, Quentin Hanich
The Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security (ANCORS) attended the 22nd annual meeting of one of the biggest Regional Fisheries Management Organisations (RFMOs) – the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC) – in Manila, Philippines.
The WCPFC and other RFMOs are coming to grips with the recently concluded Agreement on Biodiversity in Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ). RFMOs and the BBNJ Agreement both have a mandate for biodiversity in the high seas and details of cooperation and coordination mechanisms for implementation are currently being developed. ANCORS co-hosted a side event on BBNJ and its interaction with the WCPFC on December 1st, 2025.
Conservation and Management
The WCPFC had a full agenda, prioritising negotiations on the management of South Pacific albacore. The WCPFC took a major step forward in the sustainable management of its key stocks with the adoption of a FFA proposal for a management procedure for South Pacific albacore (SPA). Debate through the week illustrated the challenge of balancing short-term impacts on some distant water fishing fleets with long-term benefits for the economic and biological sustainability of the entire fishery. After extensive negotiations, the WPCFC adopted a compromise management procedure that provided a balance to which all members could agree.
The Commission also made progress on bycatch (including some incremental improvements on the mitigation of seabird bycatch following years of negotiation), voluntary guides on high seas boarding and inspection, and on the Commission’s efforts to support the special requirements of developing states.
All of these decisions reflect the incremental change that is typical of consensus-based decision making. In 2026, the WCPFC will aim to adopt an implementing measure for the SPA management procedure and a management procedure for bigeye tuna.
BBNJ Panel at WCPFC 22
The BBNJ Agreement is a legally binding treaty to ensure the conservation and sustainable use of marine biological diversity of areas beyond national jurisdiction. It aims to balance protection of the marine environment and ensuring sustainable use, through four main pillars: ensuring the fair and equitable access to and use of marine genetic resources (MGRs); the establishment of area-based management tools (ABMTs), including marine protected areas (MPAs); the conduct of environmental impact assessments (EIAs); and capacity building the transfer of marine technology (CBTMT). RFMOs, on the other hand, are charged with ensuring the long-term conservation and sustainable used of straddling and highly migratory fish stocks throughout their range, including the high seas. But they also have extensive responsibilities to protect marine biodiversity, including non-target species.
The BBNJ agreement has now been ratified by 75 States (as of 15 October 2025) and will enter into force on 17th January 2026. The first Conference of the Parties (COP) meeting will be held within the first year of entry into force. With this in mind, ANCORS and the Australian Government organised a side-event discussion at the WCPFC. The side-event included presentations on the new treaty by Dr Ina Tessnow-von Wysocki (ANCORS) and Mat Kertesz (head of the Australian delegation), followed by an open discussion with a panel of experts from government and non-government institutions. Panellists included Jung-re Riley Kim (Korea), Laurence Edwards (Republic of the Marshall Islands), Rhea Moss-Christian (WCPFC Secretariat) and Glen Holmes (Pew). WCPFC members posed several thoughtful questions on issues regarding considerations of internal cooperation of ministries at the national level and practical implementation of new biodiversity measures among BBNJ and RFMOs. The topic of BBNJ was again taken up in the plenary session of the formal meeting under the agenda item “cooperation with other organisations”, where the Secretariat outlined the BBNJ agreement contents and implications for WCPFC, followed by State and non-state interventions. An overall cooperative spirit could be seen, with interest in what the BBNJ agreement entails and how it will facilitate cooperation with and among other instruments, frameworks and bodies.
For background, Dr Ina Tessnow-von Wysocki and Dr Bianca Haas submitted an ANCORS observer paper to WCPFC22 on the links between the WCPFC and the new BBNJ Agreement. ANCORS also recorded a number of episodes on the BBNJ Agreement and fisheries as part of its Negotiating the Ocean podcast series.