The Regional Commission for Fisheries

摘要

Fisheries have received a great deal of attention internationally due to their transboundary nature. Marine fisheries are critical to the economic, cultural and social wellbeing of many nations. However, over the recent decades, many marine resources throughout the world have been heavily exploited and seriously degraded. This is partly a result of the rapid development of the fisheries sector over the last decades with an emphasis on increased fishing effort. Nearly 90% of the world's fish stocks are currently either fully exploited or overfished, mainly due to weak policy implementation, and a poor monitoring and enforcement practices. "In many sea areas, the weight of fish available to be harvested is calculated to be less than one tenth or even one one-hundredth of what it was before the introduction of industrial fishing ." The associated concern about biodiversity loss and the destruction of marine habitats, and the threats posed to sustainable food production and ecosystem resilience, led to international commitments aimed at halting biodiversity loss and conserving marine resources.