HMS (Highly Migratory Species)

Highly migratory species (HMS) are the wide-ranging fish listed in Annex I of the 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), whose stocks cross national zones and the high seas. The Annex I list covers the principal tunas (albacore, bluefin, bigeye, skipjack, yellowfin, blackfin, little tunny, and southern bluefin), plus marlins, sailfish, swordfish, sauries, pomfrets, dolphinfish, oceanic sharks, and cetaceans. UNCLOS Article 64 requires coastal states and distant-water fishing states to cooperate on conservation and optimum use, which they do through the tuna RFMOs (ICCAT, IATTC, IOTC, WCPFC, and CCSBT) and the 1995 UN Fish Stocks Agreement that strengthened that duty.