First Page
198
Abstract
In 2025, it was estimated that over 35% of international fish stocks were overfished, risking severe depletion of high seas fisheries. In general, countries have control over fisheries within 200 nautical miles of their coastal border. Many countries have established fishery conservation laws to help prevent overfishing. Some examples of the largest domestic fishing laws are the Magnuson-Stevens Fishery Conservation and Management Act and the European Union’s Common Fishery Policy (MSA), which functions as an international policy that governs all of the United States’ fisheries and the European Union’s Common Fisheries Policy (CFP). Concurrently, the United Nations has also opened the Convention on the Law of the Sea on the Conservation and Sustainable Use of Marine Biological Diversity of Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction for signature but has yet to receive the number of signatures necessary for ratification. Despite the great length that existing laws have implemented to stop overfishing, the problem persists on a global scale. The key issue that lingers in fishery laws is how fisheries are managed and governed. This note compares the MSA and the CFP to find a management solution that can best work to govern high seas fisheries and ultimately stop curb widespread overfishing. This note argues that fishery membership should be limited to countries with legitimate non-economic interest in the fishery. Moreover, the note pulls from argues that the scientific methods used to develop fishery conservation policies should be based on “the best scientific information available”. Overall, this note seeks to highlight the influence of commercial interests in international fisheries and ultimately seeks to mitigate their influence in policy development.
Recommended Citation
Louis Morais-Andrade,
"Reeling In" the Governance Problem: How to Achieve Sustainable Fisheries on an International Scale,
51 Brook. J. Int'l L.
198
(2025).
Available at:
https://brooklynworks.brooklaw.edu/bjil/vol51/iss1/6