Stock sharing among neighboring coastal states

Abstract

Following the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea UNCLOS) in 1994, the international reinforcement of management on highly migratory fish and straddling fish was pursued with the establishment of the UN Implementation Agreement. In the Northeast Asian waters, including areas adjacent to Japan, a regional fishery organization concerned with the management of small pelagics had still not been established. However, bilateral discussions were made on a gradual basis between the countries involved within the framework that they belonged. Management measures were introduced starting with fish species for which management was not possible, based on the perspective of building up long term multilateral agreements. Some of the pertinent issues highlighted in the paper include those relating to multilateral agreements regarding straddling fish species and highly migratory species, those relating to the situation in the area surrounding Japan, and also facing the Southeast Asian region. The possibility that target management level of shared stocks will be affected by the stock abundance in this region was also pointed out.