Lea comunicado en español en sitio de ECOCEANOS
Reñaca/Chile, 04 de Mayo, 2007 (Ecoceanos news)— Coastal countries and those countries with long distance fleets fishing in international waters at the South Pacific that were negotiating this week the creation of a Regional Fisheries Management Organization (RFMO) for that area, agreed to “freeze” bottom trawling fishing efforts, beginning 30 September this year, and prohibit bottom trawling in all areas of the high seas where vulnerable marine ecosystems such as seamounts and deepwater corals are known or likely to be found. This measure will be in place until scientific studies are conducted and regulations are in place in order to prevent detrimental impacts on those ecosystems.
Application of this provisional conservation measure will cover all of the high seas of the South Pacific from the Equator south to the southern ocean and will be in place until the formal establishment of the South Pacific RFMO in several years time.
In spite of the above, the Russian Federation stated its opposition to adopt such conservation measure, aimed to protect the biodiversity of deep sea ecosystems, in an attempt to block reaching to a consensus. They even went further to announce that they will continue with bottom trawling activities in the South Pacific. However, all other countries committed to abide by the agreement which was formallly adopted by the meeting today.
In light of the resolution to stop bottom trawling activities, Matt Gianni, co-founder and Political Advisor to the Deep Sea Conservation Coalition, an international coalition of NGOs, scientists, and fishers organizations, stated “we’re pleased that countries have recognized the need to protect the deep-sea from bottom trawl fishing and that they have committed to a concrete and precuationary plan of action. We´ll be closely monitoring the impementation of this agreement to ensure that governments live up to what they have agreed to here today”.
Juan Carlos Cardenas, Deep Sea Conservation Coordinator for Latin America and Executive Director of Centro Ecoceanos in Chile said “this is an historic step for the protection of deep sea biodiversity in the high seas of the South Pacific region. This also sends a powerful signal to high seas fishing nations in other ocean regions. We are looking forward to work with States in the implementation of the interim measures”
Other measures agreed at the meeting in Renaca include a requirement that any fishing expansion into new areas can only occur after 2010 and only after a thorough evaluation process is carried out. Furthermore, all bottom trawl vessels fishing on the high seas will have to have observers on board and use Vessel Monitoring Systems.
The proposal to control bottom trawling activities was made by New Zealand, the country with the largest high seas bottom trawl fleet in the South Pacific. In presenting its proposal, the New Zealand delegation stated that that this measure will mean the serious constraints on the New Zealand high seas fishing fleet, and the possiblility that high seas bottom trawl fishing may cease altogether. New Zealand vessels are currently responsible approximately 90% of the bottom trawling activities in international waters in the South Pacific targeting orange roughy found on seamounts.
The next and 4th round of negotiations for the new South Pacific RFMO will take place in New Caledonia in September 2007.
