High Seas Fishing

High-seas fishing is capture fishing in waters beyond any state’s exclusive economic zone, where UNCLOS grants a freedom to fish subject to conservation duties. Flag states must cooperate through RFMOs, and the UN Fish Stocks Agreement of 1995 binds them to apply the precautionary approach and compatible measures to straddling and highly migratory stocks. In practice tuna RFMOs and others set high-seas catch and effort limits, vessel authorization lists, observer coverage, and transshipment controls. Roughly 4 to 6 percent of global marine catch comes from the high seas, dominated by tuna, billfish, and squid.