UN / HIGH SEAS FISHERIES

At a conference this week on saving the world's fish stocks, experts from the Pew Environment Group warn against illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and add that without better conservation and management, fisheries "will crash by 2050" affecting "three billion people who rely on fish as the primary source of protein." UNTV / FILE

• Categories: News & Features / News Stories / Unifeed
• Video Length: 00:02:27
• Production Date: 24 May 2010
• Asset Language: Original
• Corporate Name: UNITED NATIONS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME - UNDP
• Subject Topical: POLITICAL AFFAIRS; LAW; INTERNATIONAL LAW; POLITICAL CONDITIONS; INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS; LAW OF THE SEA; AGRICULTURE; FORESTRY; FISHING
• MAMS Id: U100524c

Description

STORY: UN / HIGH SEAS FISHERIES
TRT: 2:27
SOURCE: UNTV
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS

DATELINE: 24 MAY 2010, NEW YORK CITY / FILE

Shotlist

1. Wide shot, beginning of press conference
2. Cutaway, journalists
3. SOUNDBITE (English) Susan Lieberman, International Policy Director for the Pew Environment Group:
“The estimates are that global fisheries will crash, completely crash by 2050, in little more than one generation. The Secretary-General said today that up to three billion people, that's close to half of our planet, rely on fish as their primary source of protein. So this meeting here and the discussions this afternoon is not an academic exercise, it’s not a discussion of process. It’s not a sharing of nice ideas and let’s all agree to have a nice conversation we are talking about the very future of food security on our planet and the very future of our oceans.”
4. Cutaway, journalists
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Susan Lieberman, International Policy Director for the Pew Environment Group:
“If I go buy a vessel that is fishing in the high seas, I can change the name and paint it; put a flag of a different country and you will never know even if the vessel is guilty of serious illegal fishing. And that’s a fundamental problem with this system.”
6. Cutaway, journalists
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Susan Lieberman, International Policy Director for the Pew Environment Group:
“The green economy report of UNEP said the value from global fisheries is $17 billion and the subsidies are $27 billion. Something is quite wrong so if governments reduce excess subsidies and over capacity. I think I would like to be able to predict that the governments will be able to take strong action to implement the Port State agreement to stop IUU (illegal, unreported and unregulated) fishing.”

FILE – UNDP – 2006, NAMIBIA

8. Various shots, fisherman fishing for tuna at Current
9. Various shots, tuna on fishing boat

FILE – UNDP – 2006, WALVIS BAY, NAMIBIA

10. Various shots, fish packing factory
11. Various shots, floor of factory
12. Various shots, workers cutting fish in factory

Storyline

At a conference this week on saving the world’s fish stocks, experts from the Pew Environment Group warned against illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and said that without better conservation and management, fisheries “will crash by 2050” affecting “three billion people who rely on fish as their primary source of protein.”

At the press conference today (24 May) Susan Lieberman, International Policy Director for the Pew Environment Group, added that the discussions during the conference “is not an academic exercise or a discussion of process” but about the “future of food security on our planet and the very future of our oceans.”

A five-day conference opened at United Nations (UN) headquarters in New York amid warnings that three quarters of the world’s fish stocks are in distress and nearing depletion while marine ecosystems continue to deteriorate.

The conference is reviewing implementation of the 1995 UN Fish Stocks Agreement that established a legal regime for long-term conservation and sustainable use of straddling and highly migratory fish stocks. It will provide an opportunity for countries to consider new measures to tighten implementation of the legal regime.

According to Lieberman, one of the biggest challenges concerning illegal fishing is the lack of laws that govern fishing vessels. She said that it is easy to change the name and appearance of a vessel and “never know even if the vessel is guilty of serious illegal fishing.”

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that currently three quarters of all fish stocks are in distress and nearing depletion and that the majority of straddling fish stocks, highly migratory species and other high seas fish stocks are either fully exploited or over-exploited.

Lieberman said that UN Environment Programme recently reported that “the value from global fisheries is $17 billion and the subsidies are $27 billion.” She added that “something is quite wrong so if governments reduce excess subsidies and over capacity, I think I would like to be able to predict that the governments will be able to take strong action to implement the Port State agreement to stop IUU (illegal, unreported and unregulated) fishing.”

The Port State measures, agreed upon 91 Member States of the Food and Agriculture Organization in 2009 was the first ever global treaty focused specifically on the problem of IUU fishing. It is hoped that the agreement will help block IUU-caught fish from entering international markets, thereby removing an important incentive for some fishermen to engage in illicit fishing.