OECD in the fisheries field

The oceans, covering 71 per cent of the world's surface, contain one of the most precious food reserves on earth. For centuries the seas have been used by mankind to provide important protein for an ever increasing population. The ease of access and the "catchability" of various fish stocks combined with the fact that all natural sea resources are continuously renewing or reproducing themselves to provide future generations with food, highlights the importance of gaining a better understanding of how fisheries work.

With their characteristics of natural renewable resources, fisheries pose interesting economic and administrative challenges for policy makers. During the past decades the understanding of fisheries has improved considerably. At the same time, increasing over exploitation of the resource base coupled with environmental problems like oceans dumping and pollution, has resulted in the closure of some fisheries.

Although fisheries in OECD countries contribute only marginally to the overall performance of the economy, the conceptual underpinning of the fisheries sector can be shared with other natural resource based systems. Furthermore, fisheries is one of the best-described natural resource sectors that provides the examples and the theory necessary for progression towards sustainable societies.

In the meantime, fish as a food resource, has gradually become endangered as fish harvesting and processing technology has developed. Innovations such as the power block and the purse seine, fish finding electronics and the extension of trawling to 1000 meters of depth, have drawn most unknown fish species out of their hiding places. In line with these developments the international community has had to react appropriately, so creating "new rules of the game" that are up to date with the potential of fishing fleets.

The general extension of the EEZ's to 200 miles from 1977, the adoption of UNCLOS in 1982, the UNCED Agenda 21 in 1992, the UN Conference on Straddling Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks, the Agreement to Promote Compliance with International Conservation and Management Measure by Fishing Vessels in the High Seas (the Compliance Agreement) in 1993, the 1995 Kyoto Declaration and the FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries adopted in 1995 are all testimonies of an increasing concern about our commons and about the way we have been treating our marine food resources.

Meeting of the OECD Council at Ministerial Level 16-17 May 2001
Final communiqué: Fisheries policies have to address the relation between sustainable management of resources and trade liberalisation, the causes of unsustainable fishing, and the need to avoid those subsidies that are harmful, to be further analysed by OECD based on its recent study, Transition to Responsible Fisheries. This study is a valuable contribution, and we look to OECD, in co-operation with the FAO and other international organisations, to deepen its analysis in these fields to inform policy development. See paragraph 40 of the Communiqué.