Transboundary Fisheries Management

The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea created the exclusive economic zone regime, which makes more than 90 per cent of the world’s commercial fish stocks under the national jurisdiction of coastal States. The biological characteristics of fish demonstrate that the long-term sustainability of fisheries can only be achieved through cooperation and coordination among States, especially for the conservation of transboundary fish stocks. However, the ocean may have more than 1,500 transboundary fish stocks, only a limited number are subjected to effective cooperative management. This article provides an overview of the international legal framework on transboundary fisheries and China’s practice on shared stocks and distant water fisheries, and argues that current bilateral fisheries agreements are not sufficient enough to manage transboundary fish stocks and China still has much to do on regulating distant water fisheries.