United Nations resolutions on driftnet fishing: An unsustainable precedent for high seas and coastal fisheries management

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Abstract
This article argues that the 1989 and 1991 driftnet resolutions (44/225 and 46/215) adopted by the United Nations General Assembly recommending termination of all high seas deployment of large pelagic driftnets are flawed by procedural and substantive errors. The resolutions were not supported by the best scientific evidence available and are not consistent with the principles of high seas fishing in the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. The article reviews the political pressures, mostly from the United States but with significant input from South Pacific nations, that were largely responsible for the resolutions, and offers detailed descriptions and evaluations of observational data on the key North Pacific squid driftnet fisheries. Most of these data were ignored by the UN General Assembly, despite their availability and their evidence that high seas bycatch rates in the squid fisheries are among the lowest in any known fishery, whatever the gear. The final section of the article discusses international legal issues posed by the resolutions and their implications for governance of high seas fisheries and other fisheries, and offers recommendations.

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