NEW ZEALAND PROPOSAL GAINS GROWING SUPPORT AT SOUTH PACIFIC RFMO MEETING

Lea versión en español del primer día de reuniones

On the first day of the meeting, New Zealand presented a proposal for countries fishing in the South Pacific to respond promptly to the UN General Assembly (UN GA) Resolution on Responsible Fishing 61/105. These measures would be applied even though the South Pacific RFMO is not yet legally established. While the NZ proposal is a good start, the DSCC believes that it needs improvement. Interestingly, the New Zealand delegate declared that their proposal could imply restrictions to high seas bottom trawling by New Zealand fleets in the South Pacific. Even if these negotiations fail, the NZ government has, in our view, committed to taking to implement the UNGA Resolution with respect to the New Zealand high seas fleet.

Most delegations declared today that they are open to consider the NZ proposal but detailed positions are not yet clear. Unfortunately, one country, Russia, is clearly trying to reverse the UNGA agreement reached in NY, by claiming that states should only close bottom fisheries on the high seas where significant adverse impact can be demonstrated. They also stated that the UNGA Resolution does not apply to all bottom fisheries on the high seas. Both of these things are clearly wrong. The UNGA Resolution requires States to show that their vessels will not damage sensitive marine ecosystem such as deep sea corals. If they can’t demonstrate this, or manage them so they do not do such damage, then they should stop bottom fishing by the end of this year. And the Resolution clearly applies to all bottom trawling on the high seas.

One of the problems with the NZ proposal is that it implies a link between discussions on bottom trawling with discussions on interim measures for pelagic fisheries in the South Pacific. Another major player fishing in the region, the EU also made such an explicit link in the meeting today. We are concerned that linking the discussions could complicate or even derail an outcome on bottom fishing, as it opens the door to countries playing politics. The UNGA Resolution clearly calls upon countries and RFMOs to put in place interim measures on bottom fishing regardless of what else is on the table. Holding back on an agreement on bottom trawling to get what they want on other issues is not in the spirit of protecting the deep sea and is not what was agreed at the UN last December