The driftnetting problem in the pacific ocean: Legal considerations and diplomatic options

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Abstract
Large‐scale driftnetting is a particularly destructive and indiscriminate mode of capturing the sea's living resources and other wildlife. Because of the methods and materials used, the practice presents an environmental threat as well. In the Pacific, pressures by “victim states”; to reduce or eliminate driftnetting by vessels of the “culprit states”; have led to bilateral and regional actions and, in December. 1989, to a United Nations General Assembly resolution calling for, inter alia, mora‐toria on large‐scale driftnetting by mid‐1992. The author notes the inapplicability of national law to this high seas problem and the difficulties of managing driftnetting practices under “classical”; and “neoclassical”; international law approaches. Only the “soft law”; duties to conserve, cooperate, and negotiate provide a legal avenue toward resolving the problem. Ultimately, the solution lies in various kinds of diplomacy, described by the author as “transactional,”; “guidelines,”; and “leverage”; diplomacy.

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