Article by Jamie Gibbon: “With demand for seafood rising worldwide and ocean health facing an array of threats, ensuring the sustainability of fisheries has never been more critical. Aside from national governments, that responsibility falls mostly to regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs), which set catch limits along with rules on how, where and when fleets may fish and transfer catch on the high seas.
To guard against overfishing, RFMOs and their member countries must set those catch limits based on the best available science, monitor the activity of their fleets and work to improve compliance with the rules they have agreed upon.
Across the vast expanses of international waters, which in most cases begin 200 miles from the nearest shore, RFMOs face challenges in accomplishing those mandates. As just one example: RFMOs have long required human observer coverage on some vessels to collect critical data, but using people in this role can be dangerous and expensive…(More)”.
