Helga Law Journal

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Helga Law Journal - 01.01.2021, Qupperneq 82

Helga Law Journal - 01.01.2021, Qupperneq 82
Helga Law Journal Vol. 1, 2021 84 Helga Guðmundsdóttir 85 drafters of the Convention recognized that fish stocks do not respect the boundaries of a single coastal State’s EEZ and, while the management and conservation of the living resources within its EEZ was left to the coastal State’s discretion, this was accompanied by certain obligations to attempt to cooperate with other parties where the fish stock in question is a shared stock, as provided in particular in article 63. While article 63 does not expressly stipulate an obligation to actually reach an agreement on conservation measures as a prerequisite to exploiting the shared stocks, there is nonetheless an express obligation to seek to reach an agreement. This obligation must, as other provisions of the Convention, be carried out in good faith in accordance with article 300 of the Convention. In the North Sea Continental Shelf cases the International Court of Justice considered a similar duty to seek to reach an agreement, and determined the exigency of making an effort to actually reach an agreement with the following words: […] the parties are under an obligation to enter into negotiations with a view to arriving at an agreement, and not merely to go through a formal process of negotiation as a sort of prior condition for the automatic application of a certain method […]; they are under an obligation so to conduct themselves that the negotiations are meaningful, which will not be the case when either of them insists upon its own position without contemplating any modification of it […].24 Parties to any fisheries dispute over shared stocks – including those party to the mackerel dispute – cannot comply with their obligation under article 63 of the Convention to seek to reach an agreement unless they do so in good faith. They must undertake a serious effort to reach the objective on which the duty to negotiate is founded; in this case the conservation of the mackerel stock within and beyond their national jurisdictions. However, upon a failure to reach an agreement, the parties are for all intents and purposes free to unilaterally determine the conservation and management measures applicable to the shared stock within their respective EEZs by virtue of their sovereign rights. The important disclaimer here is that States must comply with their other obligations under international law, including the obligation to ensure that the stock is not endangered. No other articles in the Convention expressly address the collaborative management of a shared fish stock. The Convention does not further detail how such cooperation will be realized, apart from determining that it may either be done directly by the parties in question or through an international organization. For example, in the North East Atlantic, a regional organization, the North-East 24 Annick Van Houtte, Gordon Munro and Rolf Willmann, ‘The Conservation and Management of Shared Fish Stocks: Legal and Economic Aspects’ (2004), FAO Fisheries Technical Paper 465 <www.fao.org/docrep/007/y5438e/y5438e00.htm> accessed 23 October 2021; North Sea Continental Shelf (Federal Republic of Germany/Netherlands and Federal Republic of Germany/Denmark), Judgment, [1969] ICJ Rep 3, 48. generally recommended international minimum standards;19 (iii) take account of fishing patterns; and (iv) consider negative effects of the fisheries on species associated with or dependent upon exploited stock with a view to negating such effects. Importantly, however, and in no uncertain terms, the article lays down a strict obligation to prevent over-exploitation of a fish stock.20 The emphasis in the Convention on conservation over exploitation is arguably evident also in article 62, the gist of which is that a State has the obligation to harvest the entire TAC it determines in accordance with article 61, and must where it does not have the capacity to harvest the entire TAC give other States access to the surplus. However, paragraph 1 stipulates that ‘[t]he coastal State shall promote the objective of optimum utilization of the living resources in the exclusive economic zone without prejudice to article 61 [on the conservation of the living resources].’21 In accordance with the foregoing, there is no obligation to actually ensure the ‘optimum utilization’ (read as ‘exploitation’) of a fish stock, but rather to promote such (‘optimum’, as opposed to maximum) utilization, provided that it does not affect proper conservation of a species. The utilization obligation is therefore not as strict as that of ensuring the non-endangerment of the stock.22 (B) The obligation to cooperate with other parties fishing the same stock to ensure proper management of that stock Part V therefore makes it apparent that the principle of conservation laid out in article 61 is central to the EEZ regime and has a predominant role in a coastal State’s exercise of its right to exploit the resources therein.23 That being said, the environmental and economic factors, such as the economic needs of the fishing communities. In light of this, one could imagine that a fish stock may perhaps be fished above the MSY level for some period when the State is experiencing financial difficulties – provided this does not permanently endanger the stock. 19 Several international standards may be relevant, including FAO’s Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries. 20 Cf. article 61(2), which provides that: ‘The coastal State […] shall ensure through proper conservation and management measures that the maintenance of the living resources in the exclusive economic zone is not endangered by over-exploitation.’ Emphasis added. 21 Convention, article 61(1). Emphasis added. 22 Myron H. Nordquist, Satya Nandan and Shabtai Rosenne (eds), ‘Article 61 - Conservation of the Living Resources (II)’, UN Convention on the Law of the Sea Commentary 1982 (Martinus Nijhoff Publishers 2013) 635. In light of this a coastal State could set a fairly low total allowable catch qualifying its MSY by its interests, leaving little fish to be caught and no surplus to be accessed by third parties. 23 The provisions in Part VII of the Convention on the high seas also evidence the paramount importance of complying with the obligation to conserve the living resources. Articles 117 to 119 concern the duty to take measures to conserve the high seas stocks, the duty to cooperate with other States in their conservation and the factors that must be referred to in determining appropriate conservation and management measures. The preferential right of coastal States to the exploitation of the fish stocks is furthermore emphasized in article 116 which concerns the freedom of high seas fisheries and determines that the freedom is subject to rights, duties and interests of coastal States provided for, inter alia, in the provisions concerning stocks which occur in both the EEZ of a coastal State and on the high seas. Convention, articles 116(1)(b) and 87(1)(e).
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