Sustainable Fishery Proposal
Article I - Background
- Defines, for the purposes of this proposal, "biologically unsustainable fishery" as a practice that causes the biomass growth rate of stocks of fish, crustaceans, mollusks, etc. to be significantly reduced, leading to lowered breeding and consequential population depletion that cannot be restored over one generation
- Notes that the over-exploitation of living resources that occurs through biologically unsustainable fishery results in stock depletion and eventual fishery collapse without mitigation, which can have devastating effects on marine environments, including restructuring of ecosystems
- Recognizing that while the fishing industry functions as a mass provider of employment and foodstuff, biologically unsustainable fishery is also economically unsustainable through growth overfishing (defined as the harvest of recruits at a smaller-than-average size, resulting in sub-optimal yield) and recruitment overfishing (defined as the excessive removal of the biologically mature adults, causing a subsequent lack of offspring and sub-optimal yield)
Article II - Regulation
- Hereby establishes a "Sustainable Fishery Committee" to, in cooperation with the governments of nation-states, gather and analyze data on fish stocks worldwide and engage in the promotion of sustainable fishery
- Grants this "Sustainable Fishery Committee" the powers to, in cooperation with the governments of nation-states:
- Outline marine reserves and marine protected areas in areas of significant ecological damage due to unsustainable fishing, wherein fishing is regulated and/or prohibited
- Establish individual transferable quotas (defined as limiting access permits to harvest specified quantities of fish each year, with such quantities being allocated to members of a fishery as a percentage of the total allowable catch determined by fisheries scientists)
- Facilitate inter-governmental cooperation between nation-states, including but not limited to the creation of Regional Fisheries Management Organizations, in cases of straddling and transboundary fish stocks (defined as fish stocks that migrate between or occur in one or more nation-states and the high seas)
Article III - Enforcement
- Defines illegal fishing as fishing that occurs in prohibited zones, or fishing that violates regulations and/or individual transferable quotas
- Delegates responsibilities for fishing vessel monitoring, regulation, and adherence to this proposal to the nation-state of which the fishing vessel flies the flag, except in cases wherein the fishing vessel is in the coastal waters of another nation-state, in which case said coastal nation-state bears primary responsibilities
- Requires port authorities to inspect paperwork, ship's records, equipment, and catches of fishing vessels
- Prohibits port authorities from allowing fishing vessels that participated in illegal fishing to dock
Aye: San Martinia, the East African Commonwealth, France, the United Republics, Russia
Nay:
Abstain:
