Fish Stocks Agreement

The United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement (formally 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) was adopted on 4 August 1995 and entered into force on 11 December 2001. It operationalises Articles 63(2) and 64 of UNCLOS, which address fish populations that either straddle exclusive economic zones (EEZs) and the adjacent high seas (such as Grand Banks cod) or migrate across vast ocean areas (such as tuna and swordfish).

The Agreement's core innovations include:

• The precautionary approach (Article 6 and Annex II), requiring states to act cautiously when scientific information is uncertain and to set reference points for stock management.
• Compatibility between conservation measures inside EEZs and on the high seas (Article 7), preventing flag states from undermining coastal-state regulations.
• Reliance on regional fisheries management organisations (RFMOs) as the primary vehicle for high-seas fisheries governance; non-members who do not cooperate are excluded from fishing the relevant stocks (Articles 8–10).
• Boarding and inspection powers (Articles 21–22) allowing a state party to board and inspect vessels flying the flag of another party on the high seas, a significant departure from traditional exclusive flag-state jurisdiction.
• Dispute settlement by reference to Part XV of UNCLOS.

The treaty grew directly out of concerns raised at the 1992 Rio Earth Summit and the collapse of the Northwest Atlantic cod fishery. As of recent UN depositary data it has roughly 90 parties, including the European Union, the United States, Canada, Australia, and Russia, though several major fishing states have not ratified. It is widely regarded as the strongest binding instrument for high-seas fisheries and a template for subsequent biodiversity agreements such as the 2023 BBNJ Treaty.