Pirates as Poachers: International Fisheries Law and the Bluefin Tuna
![handle is hein.journals/capulr29 and id is 669 raw text is: PIRATES AS POACHERS: INTERNATIONAL
FISHERIES LAW AND THE BLUEFIN TUNA
JON VAN STEENIS*
I. INTRODUCTION
The freedom to fish on the high seas has long been recognized as one
of the fundamental principles of the international law of the sea.' The 1958
Geneva Convention on the High Seas was recognized at its adoption as
being generally declaratory of established principles of international
law,2 and defined the freedom of the high seas as being available to all
nations, irrespective of whether the nation was a Coastal State.' Such
freedom was not subject to the sovereignty of any State; and, [i]t
comprises both for coast[al] and non-coastal states: . .. [the] Freedom of
Fishing.4
Although the 1958 Geneva Convention recognized the freedom of
fishing on the high seas, the freedom was not unlimited. This freedom
included a requirement that all high seas vessels employ reasonable
regard for the interests of other States in their exercise of their own
freedom to fish the high seas.'
The scope of the duty to employ reasonable regard and the
delimitations of the high seas vis-a-vis the disputed boundaries and fishing
zones of coastal States were the source of much subsequent international
conflict between nations exercising this long-held freedom to fish.' These
conflicts were partially resolved in 1982 by the Third United Nations
Convention on the Law of the Sea (LOSC).7 The LOSC delineated the
area of the high seas as: all parts of the sea that are not included in the
Copyright © 2001, Jon Van Steenis.
* LLM Candidate in Environmental and Energy Law at Tulane University.
See e.g., Fisheries Jurisdiction (F.R.G. v. Ice.), 1974 I.C.J. 175, No. 56 (Jul. 25,
1975); Fisheries Jurisdiction (U.K. v. Ice.), 1974 I.C.J. 3, No. 55 (July 25, 1974) (NO. 55).
2 Convention on the High Seas, done Apr. 29, 1958, pmbl., 13 U.S.T. 2312, 2314,
450 U.N.T.S. 82, 82 [hereinafter High Seas).
3 Id.,art. 2.
4 Id.
5 Id.
6 See Fisheries Jurisdiction, (F.R.G. v. Ice.), 1974 I.C.J. 175, No. 56, 191-92 (July
25, 1974) (noting that the 1958 Geneva Convention on The High Seas and left unsettled the
question of the breadth of the territorial sea and the extent of the coastal States' fishery
jurisdiction, resulting in a number of States asserting an extension of fishery limits).
7 Third United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, opened for signature
Dec. 10, 1982, 21 I.L.M. 1261 (entered into force Nov. 16, 1994) [hereinafter LOSC].
659](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/capulr29&div=27&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
What Is HeinOnline?
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most
Pirates as Poachers: International Fisheries Law and the Bluefin Tuna
Contact us for annual subscription options:
Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?
profiles profiles most