A/RES/62/177
Welcoming the fact that a growing number of States, and entities referred to in
the Convention and in article 1, paragraph 2 (b), of the Agreement, as well as
regional and subregional fisheries management organizations and arrangements,
have taken measures, as appropriate, towards the implementation of the provisions
of the Agreement,
Welcoming also the recent ratifications of and accessions to the Agreement,
Welcoming further the work of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the
United Nations and its Committee on Fisheries and the 2005 Rome Declaration on
Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing, adopted by the Ministerial Meeting on
Fisheries of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations on
12 March 2005, 3 which calls for effective implementation of the various instruments
already developed to ensure responsible fisheries, and recognizing that the Code of
Conduct for Responsible Fisheries of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the
United Nations (“the Code”) 4 and its associated international plans of action set out
principles and global standards of behaviour for responsible practices for
conservation of fisheries resources and the management and development of
fisheries,
2F
3F
Welcoming the outcomes, including the decisions and recommendations, of the
twenty-seventh session of the Committee on Fisheries of the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations, held from 5 to 9 March 2007, 5
4F
Noting with concern that effective management of marine capture fisheries has
been made difficult in some areas by unreliable information and data caused by
unreported and misreported fish catch and fishing effort and that this lack of
accurate data contributes to overfishing in some areas, and therefore welcoming the
adoption of the Strategy for Improving Information on Status and Trends of Capture
Fisheries 6 and the development of the Fishery Resources Monitoring System
initiative by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations to
improve knowledge and understanding of fishery status and trends,
5F
Recognizing the significant contribution of sustainable fisheries to food
security, income, wealth and poverty alleviation for present and future generations,
Recognizing also the urgent need for action at all levels to ensure the longterm sustainable use and management of fisheries resources through the wide
application of the precautionary approach,
Deploring the fact that fish stocks, including straddling fish stocks and highly
migratory fish stocks, in many parts of the world are overfished or subject to
sparsely regulated and heavy fishing efforts, as a result of, inter alia, illegal,
unreported and unregulated fishing, inadequate flag State control and enforcement,
including monitoring, control and surveillance measures, inadequate regulatory
measures, harmful fisheries subsidies and overcapacity,
_______________
3
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Outcome of the Ministerial Meeting on
Fisheries, Rome, 12 March 2005 (CL 128/INF/11), appendix B.
4
International Fisheries Instruments with Index (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.98.V.11),
sect. III.
5
See Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Report of the twenty-seventh session of the
Committee on Fisheries, Rome, 5–9 March 2007, FAO Fisheries Report No. 830 (FIEL/R830 (En)).
6
Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Report of the twenty-fifth session of the
Committee on Fisheries, Rome, 24–28 February 2003, FAO Fisheries Report No. 702 (FIPL/R702 (En)),
appendix H.
2