No more catch as catch can

摘要

Some of the world's largest fishing nations have taken a major step towards dealing with the crisis of declining fish stocks by agreeing to establish a global treaty to conserve stocks on the high seas. The pressure is now on for at least 30 nations to ratify the treaty, worked out last August in the wake of a high-profile fish fight between Canada and Spain. "We have revolutionized the law that has existed for the last 500 years on the high seas," said Satya Nandan of Fiji, chairman of the 99-nation UN Conference on Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks.