A/RES/60/31
Noting that the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries of the Food and
Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (“the Code”) 3 and its associated
international plans of action set out principles and global standards of behaviour for
responsible practices for the conservation of fisheries resources and the management
and development of fisheries,
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 the contribution this
lack of data makes to continued overfishing in some areas,
Noting with satisfaction the Strategy for Improving Information on Status and
Trends of Capture Fisheries, recently adopted by the Food and Agriculture
Organization of the United Nations, 4 and recognizing that the long-term
improvement of the knowledge and understanding of fishery status and trends is a
fundamental basis for fisheries policy and management for implementing the Code,
Recognizing the need to implement, as a matter of priority, the Plan of
Implementation of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (“Johannesburg
Plan of Implementation”), 5 in relation to achieving sustainable fisheries, including
the objective to maintain or restore stocks to levels that can produce the maximum
sustainable yield with the aim of achieving these goals for depleted stocks on an
urgent basis and where possible not later than 2015,
Recognizing also the significant contribution of sustainable fisheries to food
security, income and wealth for present and future generations,
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, unauthorized
fishing, inadequate flag State control and enforcement, including monitoring,
control and surveillance measures, inadequate regulatory measures, harmful
fisheries subsidies and overcapacity,
Concerned that illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing threatens seriously
to deplete certain fish stocks and to significantly damage marine habitats and
ecosystems, to the detriment of sustainable fisheries as well as the food security and
the economies of many States, particularly developing States,
Welcoming the outcomes of the twenty-sixth session of the Committee on
Fisheries of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, held from
7 to 11 March 2005, 6
Welcoming also the 2005 Rome Declaration on Illegal, Unreported and
Unregulated Fishing, adopted by the Ministerial Meeting on Fisheries of the Food
_______________
3
International Fisheries Instruments with Index (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.98.V.11),
sect. III.
4
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.
5
Report of the World Summit on Sustainable Development, Johannesburg, South Africa,
26 August–4 September 2002 (United Nations publication, Sales No. E.03.II.A.1 and corrigendum),
chap. I, resolution 2, annex.
6
See Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Report of the twenty-sixth session of the
Committee on Fisheries, Rome, 7–11 March 2005, FAO Fisheries Report No. 780 (FIPL/R780(En)).
2