Thank you, Mr. Chair.
Members of the committee, I thank you for inviting me to appear before you today on the reform of the convention on multilateral cooperation in the Northwest Atlantic fisheries.
My name is Alan Kessel, I am the legal advisor at Foreign Affairs and International Trade and I am accompanied by Caterina Ventura, acting director of the Oceans and Environmental Law Division. We are always pleased to appear before you, together with our colleagues.
Mr. Balfour has outlined the amendments to the 1978 NAFO convention. In my brief presentation, I would like to situate the amendments in the broader context of the international legal framework.
As required by the extensive international legal framework in place, international collaboration is necessary for the sustainable management of fisheries for stocks that are both within and outside the jurisdiction of states.
When discussing oceans issues, it's useful to start with the constitution for the oceans, the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, which Canada ratified in 2003 and which Canada in fact was very instrumental in crafting. It sets out the framework for many aspects of ocean governance, including areas in which states have sovereign rights and exercise jurisdiction.
A coastal state has sovereign rights over the natural resources within 200 nautical miles. This of course includes the right to conserve and manage fisheries. Beyond the 200-nautical-mile limit on the high seas, foreign vessels have freedom to fish.
However, this right to fish is not an unfettered right. Indeed, UNCLOS mandates states to cooperate in the conservation and management of living resources in the areas of the high seas. In this regard, states fishing these resources have the obligation to enter into negotiations to take measures for their conservation or, as appropriate, cooperate to establish regional fisheries organizations to this end.
This brings me to the discussion of the 1995 United Nations agreement on straddling and highly migratory fish stocks, which Canada ratified in 1999. The UN fish stocks agreement establishes a regime for the long-term conservation and sustainable use of these stocks.
The agreement elaborates on the duty of states to cooperate in the management of straddling and highly migratory fish stocks on the high seas. It reiterates the duty to cooperate by coastal states and by states fishing on the high seas to conserve and manage such stocks. It also provides that the conservation and management measures adopted both within and outside these areas under national jurisdiction shall be compatible.
The UN fish stocks agreement gives priority to regional fisheries management organizations as the most effective means for states to cooperate in the conservation and management of these stocks. The UN fish stocks agreement encourages states to cooperate through RFMOs or other arrangements to conserve and manage straddling and highly migratory fish stocks.
The Northwest Atlantic Fisheries Organization, also known as NAFO, is the RFMO for the northwest Atlantic. Its objective has always been to ensure the management and conservation of fish stocks in the NAFO convention area, which is the area both inside and outside of Canada's 200-nautical-mile exclusive economic zone.
NAFO contracting parties have the duty to cooperate in furthering the objectives of the convention. For that purpose, each coastal state has the obligation to inform NAFO of the actions it has taken for the conservation and management of straddling stocks within its national jurisdiction.
The amendments recognized the importance of compatibility of conservation and management measures as reflected in the UN fish stocks agreement by providing states the option to request that a measure be adopted by NAFO for an area under the jurisdiction of that state. Therefore, it is the coastal state, in the exercise of its sovereign rights, that requests NAFO to adopt the measures in the state's jurisdiction.
Mr. Chairman, in conclusion, the amended NAFO convention incorporates principles of modern fisheries governance while providing sufficient safeguards for the protection of Canada's sovereign rights in its waters.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.