A Study On The Management System Of Tuna Fishery Resources

As one of the most important marine fish species,tuna provides nutrition,livelihood and employment to people worldwide.Tuna fisheries are of great significance to coastal countries,especially those small island developing States whose economies highly depend on tuna fisheries via collection of fishery assess fees and offering lands for production bases.Since the 1950 s,countries like the United States and Japan started to harvest tuna by purse seine and loneline,which generats high economic returns.With the application of modern technologies such as Fish Aggregating Device and helicopters,there have been rapid increases in tuna catches.However,the increase in catches is accompanied by rising bycatches,which leads to problems of resource decline,overcapacity,overfishing,illegal fishing etc.These problems not only lead to deterioration of the ecological environment,but also cause negative impacts on social and economic development.This study explains the development and evolution of tuna fisheries management,with attempts to explore the driving mechanism,and analysis of the management problems due to the improper allocation of resources.It is claimed that only by the establishment of a reasonable resource allocation mechanism could we solve the management problems once for all.This paper proposes a resource re-allocation mechanism,ways of allocation and review mechanism.Also,the article takes China for example,giving thoughts on how to survive and develop among the fierce competitions,which could be used as a reference for government decision-makers.This essay starts by presenting the research status and existing problems of tuna fishery management at home and abroad,and expounds the research methods,significance and purpose of the research.The research methodology mainly includes literature survey,data analysis,and comparative analysis.Statistical data have been collected and analyzed to learn the current status of tuna stocks and their developments,as a way to review the performance of RFMOs' conservation and management measures.Literature taken as references for this study include international law,the law of the sea,laws and regulations in fisheries,and international conventions,agreements and laws.As for chapters of China tuna fisheries,Fisheries Law of China,regulations and notifications from the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs,management plans and research reports on offshore fisheries have been taken as references.The first chapter introduces the theories based on which the research has been carried out,with discussion on the causes and backgrounds for the Tragedy of Commons in fishery resource management,Property Rights Management as the theoretical basis of resource management and allocation,and the latest development of modern fisheries management theories,including Sustainable Development,Responsible Fishing and Ecosystem Approaches to Fisheries.The second chapter systematically constructs the legal framework of fisheries resource management,including the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea(UNCLOS),the Agreement to Promote Compliance with International Conservation and Management Measures by Fishing Vessels on the High Seas(the Compliance Agreement),the Agreement for the Implementation of the Provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea of 10 December 1982 relating to the Conservation and Management of Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks(the Fish Stock Agreement),Agreement on Port State Measures to prevent,deter and eliminate illegal,unreported and unregulated fishing(PSMA),the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries(The Code)and four International Actions of Plan.Tunas travel between high seas and Exclusive Economic Zones of coastal States,posing great challenges to their management.Specific provisions have been drawn in UNCLOS for highly migratory species such as tunas,which call on coastal States and relevant countries to cooperate by the establishment of regional fisheries management organizations(RFMOs).So far,five tuna RFMOs are responsible for the sustainable development of tuna fisheries and the protection of marine environment and ecosystems,under the framework of UNCLOS,with the Code as the basic principle,and the other international instruments as guidelines.The third chapter tries to tease out the evolution and development of tuna fishery management in the past few decades.Prior to the first United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea in 1958,there were no specific management measures for the conservation of tuna resources.The main purpose of fisheries management was to collect and analyze biological and ecological data of tuna and tuna-related populations in order to learn and foresee the status of the species.Due to the limitation of fishing technologies,the amount of tunas caught at that time did not exceed the maximum sustainable yield,and the resources were generally at a stable level.With the development of fishing technologies and the rapid increase in catches,people began to realize that it was time to take measures to prevent the tune resources from declining.In 1961,the Inter-American Tropical Tuna Fisheries Commission introduced the first regulation of setting a catch limit for yellowfin tuna next year.In 1972,the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas adopted a recommendation on yellowfin size limit,prohibiting any taking and landing of yellowfin tuna weighing less than 3.2 kg,as a way to protect tuna juveniles.The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea(UNCLOS)has entered into force since 1994,which brought about great changes to the management of marine fisheries.Meanwhile,in the past few decades,five tuna RFMOs have been established one after another,responsible for the management of tuna resources and fisheries.Chapter 4 talks about the conservation and management measures,as well as the means of resource allocation.On the one hand,technical measures including restrictions on fishing gear,net size,fish size,fishing time and area are applied to ensure the health growth of tuna species;on the other hand,quota system and fishing capacity limits are used to ensure that the catches do not exceed the maximum sustainable yield.However,the fishing capacity does not always match their allowable catch quotas for some countries,since the catch quota has been more or less decided by the historical catches.Overfishing,overcapacity and illegal fishing remain the problems haunting tuna fisheries.And the effectiveness of RFMOs measures has therefore been questioned.In Chapter 5,the author analyzes problems resulting from the improper allocation of tuna resources,including technical deficiencies in management measures,policy weakness,and enforcement incompetence.Under-report,over-report and false report of fishing data are commonly seen from member States,and RFMOs have been unable to verify the authenticity of such data.Moreover,among the data submitted,bycatch and other biological data are often incomplete due to the difficulty of fishermen identification or lack of clear regulations.In addition,bycatch is still one of the severe problems in tuna fisheries.Though fishing vessels have been advised to bypass areas of shark schools and marine mammals during operations,it remains a recommendation rather than a mandatory requirement.Meanwhile,the weakness in the decision-making systems also leads to poor implementation of conservation and management measures.The main criteria for the allocation of quota are the current stock status,total fishing capacity,the historical catch of member States,historical fishing methods,fishing practices and countries' compliance with management measures,among which only historical catches have been measured quantitatively,thus taken as the major criterion for the allocation of quotas.In other words,traditional distant water countries and regions enjoy a favorable share of the total allowable catch,while those new comers have to bare the rest portion,which is less than sufficient to meet their demands.Also,the decision-making systems within RFMOS have made them almost impossible to reach agreements on some substantive issues.There have been divergence in interests within member States.It is observed that some member States do not implement RFMOs measures as strictly as they do for domestic policies.The supervision responsibility of fishing vessels and fishing activities lies on flag States,yet the regulation is far from enough from those States,either due to lack of capacity or lack of willingness.In addition,the negative attitudes of member states in the implementation of conservation management measures reflect the blur boundaries of rights and obligations.A rights-based management system encourages fisheries practitioners to conduct fisheries production with maximum economic returns by actively reducing excess capacity.Furthermore,the effective allocation of fishery resource encourages member States to undertake responsibilities of resource conservation,so as to generate long-term returns.Therefore,the author suggests,in the long run,to establish an independent review mechanism to determine the proportion of quotas.In addition to historical catches,member States' responsibility for conservation(including the practice and effectiveness of combating illegal fishing)could also be taken into consideration as an important criterion for quota allocation.In the short term,the author suggests using the system of basic quota plus transferable quota,which not only protects the interests of historical fishers to a certain extent,but also provides opportunities for new comers.At the same time,the role of non-governmental organizations should be taken into active consideration,which may provide capacity building for developing countries and bridge the gap between different interest groups.In the final part,the author analyzes the possibilities of further development of tuna distant water fisheries in China.As a strategic industry,the moderate and orderly development of tuna fisheries is the best choice for China at the current stage.With the reduction of fishery resources,on the one hand,China needs to take measures to control vessel numbers,regulate fishing capacity,conduct more resource surveys,and raise fishing efficiency.On the other hand,efforts should be taken to improve compliance with international laws and regulations,as well as actively participate in international cooperation and negotiations in order to protect its legitimate rights and interests in marine issues.In short,there is still a long way to go,both for the international community and China,to ensure the sustainable development of tuna fisheries.