Three researchers at the University of British Columbia and the University of Rio Grande have, in conjunction with the WWF, studied how the world’s greatest fishery nations comply with the UN regulations for responsible fishing, the FAO Code of Conduct. Norway is regarded as best in the report, followed by the USA, Canada, Australia and Iceland.
Better than the EU
The report points out particularly that Norway and Iceland have a better accordance between their fishing and the UN Code of Conduct than many EU states that you could expect the same from.
“This may be because these countries’ national economy is to a much greater degree dependent upon the fisheries. In addition, these countries have traditionally supported development of the regulations”, write the researchers when presenting the report in the magazine, Nature.
The WWF has previously pointed out that the ban on discarding fish is one of the most important differences between fishery management in Norway and the EU.
Aid has worked
Another important conclusion in the report is that the level of welfare in a country, its method of government and stability are linked to how well the country’s fishing industry complies with the UN regulations. The researchers refer then to the Scandinavian aid to its fishing industry, when they explain why Namibia is in a strong sixth place.
“It is encouraging to see that certain developing countries score much higher than many European countries and the trend in general. This shows that it is possible to achieve a lot of good fishing management even with limited means. Targeted aid has probably had a part to play here,” write the researchers.
Thorough evaluation
The expert panel has studied fishery in 53 countries that are in responsible for 96 percent of the harvest from the sea on a global basis. In the study, the researchers have evaluated the countries in six different areas. The first three investigate the countries’ will to comply with the UN regulations, while the three last are about how efficiently they are actually complied with.
“Twelve years after the agreement of the Code of Conduct, there is still plenty of room for improvement, even at the countries who at the head of the ranking,” write the researchers in the report.
