Achieving sustainable fisheries : implementing the new international legal regime

All indicators point to a worsening state of global fisheries. According to the latest figures of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, 70% of fish stocks worldwide are fished at full capacity, overfished, or recovering. This publication aims to demystify the mosaic of new international instruments and measures, and to interpret them in a set of clear rights and obligations which, if implemented in earnest, will address this crisis. It reviews all the new instruments that have been negotiated, highlights their relevance and scope of application, and suggests means to facilitate their implementation. It is now up to the nation States who have adopted them to follow through by implementing them in earnest.