Professor Marcus Haward (1)
- Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, University of Tasmania, Private Bag 129, Hobart TAS, 7001, Marcus.Haward@utas.edu.au
Changes in climate, leading to warming in the ocean, have consequential impacts on and likely changes to the distributions and abundance of key marine species including fish. In addition to ecosystem oriented impacts these changes are also likely to affect regional food security, local economies, and social structures of the dependent human communities with concomitant challenges to current governance arrangements. Regionally based fisheries organizations provide the institutional framework for management of fisheries in areas outside national jurisdiction. This institutional framework is reinforced through the key instruments: United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea; the United Nations Fish Stocks 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); and the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organizations Compliance Agreement (the Agreement to Promote Compliance with International Conservation and Management Measures by Fishing Vessels on the High Seas). This paper explores the challenges in regional fisheries governance as a result of likely climate change influenced range shifting and changes in resource distribution. These challenges include issues related to managing shifting stocks, changing dynamics in organizational membership (for example the relative interests of coastal states and distant water fishing nations), concerns over access and allocation, and environmental sustainability, including moves at the United Nations to consider marine biodiversity conservation in areas outside national jurisdiction.