A/RES/64/72 parties to the Agreement to implement fully the provisions of article 6 of the Agreement as a matter of priority; 7. Encourages States to increase their reliance on scientific advice in developing, adopting and implementing conservation and management measures, and to increase their efforts to promote science for conservation and management measures, including through international cooperation, that apply, in accordance with international law, the precautionary approach and ecosystem approaches to fisheries management, enhancing understanding of ecosystem approaches, in order to ensure the long-term conservation and sustainable use of marine living resources, and in this regard encourages the implementation of the Strategy for Improving Information on Status and Trends of Capture Fisheries of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations 13 as a framework for the improvement and understanding of fishery status and trends; 12F 8. Calls upon all States, directly or through regional fisheries management organizations and arrangements, to apply stock-specific precautionary reference points, as described in Annex II to the Agreement and in the Code, to ensure that populations of harvested stocks, and, where necessary, associated or dependent species, are maintained at, or restored to, sustainable levels, and to use these reference points for triggering conservation and management action; Encourages States to apply the precautionary approach and ecosystem 9. approaches in adopting and implementing conservation and management measures addressing, inter alia, by-catch, pollution and overfishing, and protecting habitats of specific concern, taking into account existing guidelines developed by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations; 10. Also encourages States to enhance or develop observer programmes individually or through regional fisheries management organizations or arrangements in order to improve data collection on, inter alia, target and by-catch species, which could also assist monitoring, control and surveillance tools, and to take into account standards, forms of cooperation and other existing structures for such programmes as described in article 25 of the Agreement and article 5 of the Code; 11. Calls upon States and regional fisheries management organizations and arrangements to collect and, where appropriate, report to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations required catch and effort data, and fisheryrelated information, in a complete, accurate and timely way, including for straddling fish stocks and highly migratory fish stocks within and beyond areas under national jurisdiction, discrete high seas fish stocks, and by-catch and discards; and, where they do not exist, to establish processes to strengthen data collection and reporting by members of regional fisheries management organizations and arrangements, including through regular reviews of member compliance with such obligations, and, when such obligations are not met, require the member concerned to rectify the problem, including through the preparation of plans of action with timelines; 12. Invites States and regional fisheries management organizations and arrangements to cooperate with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United _______________ 13 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. 6