I’m not always keen to talk much about the situation in the South-Western Atlantic, the area of the world where my fisheries life started… and while I fished there, did my initial degree and worked at INIDEP. I’ve been away for over 3 decades… so I don't really know in depth what is happening, other than it hurts me to see it from the distance.
Global Fishing Watch IAS based fishing vessels "density". See the "accumulation" along Argentina’s EEZ border.
It seems that at least once a month we have some news from the mess that the HS fishery in the western South Atlantic is. Yet is important to understand this is not new… back in the late 80s when I was fishing there, we already talked about the “city in the mile 201” seawards of the EEZ of Argentina, so much so that we could see it at 20-30 miles from the EEZ border and then on the first-night satellite photos that came at the time.
At the time there was talk of potential RFMO to controls that mess, then the Falkland/Malvinas war made it worst, and any potential conversation of an RFMO has been boycotted by Argentina since in their view it will imply tacit recognition of the coastal rights of the Falklands EEZ (which in fact exist, so is basically denying reality … and this attitude goes really high in the diplomacy… I’ve seen the comments and objections on the FAO COFI statements by the Argentinean delegation objecting to any text that even remotely could indicate the need and reliance of RFMOs for regional fisheries management.
As a result, that area is perhaps the last purely unregulated fishery in the world.
Don't get me wrong… I was in the navy during the war, I lived that war 1st hand and people from my village is buried there, I know what the place means for the collective psyche of Argentineans… yet I believe that feeling is being abused for populist political ideas (the same that created that war in the 1st place!) when what we should really be talking is the management of a massive shared fisheries resource.
And of course, China is being singled as the biggest villain since it has the biggest fleet (mostly squid jiggers and some trawlers even if Korea, Taiwan, Spain and Portugal have also vessels there)). Argentina has already sunk some of the ones that they found entering the EEZ and tried to escape, and the US has sent one of it’s biggest coastguard vessels to further point the finger.
There is at least one group that is trying to create an RFMO that is not an RFMO so Argentina joins, that is a complex exercise I think…
Yet I believe that as long as you have the support of the main DWFN that operate there (CN, Spain, Korea, Japan, Spain, Portugal, etc and the main port states that support them Uruguay, Brazil and Falklands/Malvinas) in reality you may not need Argentina if they refuse to be part.
Argentina doesn’t allow foreign fishing vessels to come and use their ports unless licensed to fish in their waters, not many of their vessels operate beyond their EEZ in the HS (why would they? They face less competition inside the EEZ). In fact, if they are keen they could be a cooperating non-member (or something like that), which will bring them a place at the table without losing face, while the Falkland/Malvinas technically not a country but rather a self-governing British Overseas Territory, could be a member as “fishing entity” a solution used by Taiwan to overcome the stern opposition of CN to their presence in other RFMOs.
I’m not arguing that RFMOS are a panacea to all fisheries issues, far from that …. but they are MUCH better than nothing! And there has been quite a lot of experience gained over the decades in designing them better and research on operating them with lessons learned
The key advantages that will an RFMO immediately bring are that there would be a table where people will talk and agree to comply (at least in paper with rules), then there are some key tools that relate to their workings that are fundamental, a science committee that assesses the stocks status and agrees to conservation and management measures, as technical and compliance committee that's set up the basis of a vessel registry, a VMS, a compliance monitoring schemes, an IUU list and so on… of which NONE exists so far.
In fact the UN Fisheries Stock Agreement (that Argentina obviously hasn’t ratified) has requirements on cooperation for fisheries conservation and management, but most importantly, requires in article 17 that non members/parties or non participants – Are not discharged from their obligations to cooperate
Of course, setting an RFMO is not a small undertaking… but at this stage, I believe that there would be the willingness to set it up… since as now they are all losing… even if not one as much as Argentina.
The Georgias in the background - Pic by P. Pita
Below there are some references on how to make RFMOs work better:
James Harrison, Key Challenges Relating to the Governance of Regional Fisheries in Strengthening International Fisheries Law in an Era of Changing Oceans (Richard Caddell and Erik J Molenaar ed., Hart Publishing, 2019), (ap. 79-102).
Erik J Molenaar, Participation in Regional Fisheries Management Organizations in Strengthening International Fisheries Law in an Era of Changing Oceans (Richard Caddell and Erik J Molenaar ed., Hart Publishing, 2019), (ap. 103-130).
Andrew Serdy, Pacta Tertiis and Regional Fisheries Management Mechanisms: The IUU Fishing Concept as an Illegitimate Short-Cut to a Legitimate Goal 48 Ocean Dev. and Int’l L. 345 (2017).