The Fisheries Governance Program orients research towards supporting practical management and policy outcomes for fisheries on global, regional and national levels, engaging with coastal communities, government agencies, regional and international organisations, civil society organisations, academia and industry.
In order for regional fisheries management organisations to move forward, they must develop decision frameworks that transparently identify fundamental equity considerations, and apply conservation and management measures that are consistent with the SDGs, thereby modernising fisheries management and aligning it with broader international developments in common resource management.
In this paper, authors developed an innovative approach that would support members of tuna regional fisheries management organisations (tRMFOs) to reduce placing a disproportionate burden on developing state members.
In this paper, authors analysed the conservation and management measures of RFMOs that include exemptions from catch, effort and capacity limits and found that they are used most commonly in the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission. They argue that the use of exemptions due to the failure of RFMOs to adopt equitable allocation frameworks has the potential to negatively impact marine resources and their development opportunities. Instead, alternatives, such as equitable allocations of science-based catch and effort limits, transferability and phased adjustments, should be developed.
The study, led by Katy Seto and published in Science Advances, found that squid fishing vessels fished largely (86%) in unregulated areas, equating to 4.4 million total hours of fishing time between 2017-2020. While unregulated fishing is not necessarily illegal, it presents challenges for fisheries sustainability and resource equity, and has been connected to questionable human rights and labor practices.