‘Right to Fish’ for Whom?: A Geospatial Study of High Seas Fisheries and their Governance for Ocean Conservation

Abstract

Distant and dynamic, Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction (ABNJ) or the high seas, begin 200 miles from a nation’s coastline composing nearly 60% of the global ocean. In the latter half of the 20th century, industrial fishing rapidly expanded into the high seas quadrupling fish landings, increasing biodiversity overexploitation, and leading to almost no ocean area free from fishing today. Customary international ocean law for 400 years has been the “freedom of the high seas” which is formally codified by the United Nations (UN) as the “right to fish the high seas” for all nations. However, in the modern era of corporate fishing interests, state power at regional fisheries organizations, and an emerging global UN treaty; to whom does this ‘right to fish’ belong?This dissertation examines the ways in which fishing on the high seas is conducted and led by corporate actors without appropriate accountability by regional international governing bodies and the way this state of affairs may negatively impact conservation of high seas biodiversity. Using geospatial analyses of satellite-derived apparent fishing activity, I examined high seas fisheries dynamics and their governance for ocean conservation. The firms and corporate actors profiting from high seas fishing rarely disclose what or where they are fishing. The actors behind the high seas fishing industry were identified, mapped, and analyzed based on individual vessel beneficial ownership for the first time (Chapter 2). I then examined the regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs) mandated to regulate these corporate actors in Chapter 3. I found low overall RFMO performance across 100 management criteria, increasing overexploited and collapsed target fish stocks over time, and high industrial fishing pressure (Chapter 3). Findings from this chapter suggested long-term reactionary management for the sustainable use and conservation of high seas fish stocks, which may not be sufficient to anticipate fisheries and biodiversity crises in the Anthropocene (Chapter 3). With the recent (2023) UN Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) treaty agreed to, its future implementation would include a legally binding mechanism to protect high seas biodiversity through Marine Protected Areas providing an avenue for ocean conservation. Select high seas biodiversity hotspots have emerged for priority protection under this new agreement: the Costa Rica Thermal Dome and the Sargasso Sea. I examined the fishing activity and corporate actors in these two biodiverse yet contrasting high seas oceanographic features in Chapter 4. Lessons from this case study suggest future high seas systematic conservation priorities via BBNJ may be leaning toward a prioritization that attributes the least-cost to fishing interests (Chapter 5). This ‘residual conservation’ could compromise marine animals and ecosystems most exposed to extractive activities. I interpret this in the historical context of terrestrial conservation bias and highlight alternative pathways for identifying productive high seas areas for ocean conservation. This dissertation navigates the conflicting values between fisheries governance and biodiversity conservation in their understandings of fish as either ‘stocks’ or ‘populations’ on the high seas (Chapter 6). As momentum continues for effective conservation of high seas biodiversity, this dissertation considers potential pathways for solutions to the fisheries crisis through emerging international treaties.