Sustainable fisheries, including through the 1995 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 related instruments
A/RES/68/71
International Plan of Action for Reducing Incidental Catch of Seabirds in Longline
Fisheries of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations in order to
prevent the decline of sea turtles and seabird populations by minimizing by-catch
and increasing post-release survival in their fisheries, including through research
and development of gear and bait alternatives, promoting the use of available bycatch mitigation technology, and establishing and strengthening data-collection
programmes to obtain standardized information to develop reliable estimates of the
by-catch of these species;
107. Urges States, individually or through regional fisheries management
organizations and arrangements, to implement the International Guidelines on
Bycatch Management and Reduction of Discards of the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations;
108. Requests States and regional fisheries management organizations and
arrangements to continue to take urgent action to reduce the by-catch of seabirds,
including albatrosses and petrels, in fisheries by adopting and implementing
conservation measures consistent with the 2009 best practices technical guidelines
of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to support
implementation of the International Plan of Action for Reducing Incidental Catch of
Seabirds in Longline Fisheries and taking into account the work of the Agreement
on the Conservation of Albatrosses and Petrels and of organizations such as the
Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources;
IX
Subregional and regional cooperation
109. Urges coastal States and States fishing on the high seas, in accordance
with the Convention, the Agreement and other relevant instruments, to pursue
cooperation in relation to straddling fish stocks and highly migratory fish stocks,
either directly or through appropriate subregional or regional fisheries management
organizations or arrangements, to ensure the effective conservation and management
of such stocks;
110. Urges States fishing for straddling fish stocks and highly migratory fish
stocks on the high seas, and relevant coastal States, where a subregional or regional
fisheries management organization or arrangement has the competence to establish
conservation and management measures for such stocks, to give effect to their duty
to cooperate by becoming members of such an organization or participants in such
an arrangement, or by agreeing to apply the conservation and management measures
established by such an organization or arrangement, or to otherwise ensure that no
vessel flying their flag is authorized to access the fisheries resources to which
regional fisheries management organizations and arrangements or conservation and
management measures established by such organizations or arrangements apply;
111. Invites, in this regard, subregional and regional fisheries management
organizations and arrangements to ensure that all States having a real interest in the
fisheries concerned may become members of such organizations or participants in
such arrangements, in accordance with the Convention, the Agreement and the Code;
112. Encourages relevant coastal States and States fishing on the high seas for
a straddling fish stock or a highly migratory fish stock, where there is no
subregional or regional fisheries management organization or arrangement to
establish conservation and management measures for such stocks, to cooperate to
establish such an organization or enter into another appropriate arrangement to
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