MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falkland Islands Government Respond to Argentina's comments over-fishing in the high seas.

Councilor Richard Cockwell, the governor with responsibilities for Fisheries has responded to complaints of the levels of squid fishing in the high seas by Argentina with a letter to the Argentine press.

Legislative Councillor's Office Gilbert House

Press Release

Sir,

The issue of the alarming levels of squid catches on the high seas as widely reported in the Argentine press is nothing new. A substantial high seas fishery has been occurring since the mid-1980s, if not before. In the late 80s the Falkland Islands attempted to reduce the level of fishing activity on the high seas by making the award of Falkland fishing licences conditional upon compliance with conservation measures applicable to the high seas. The policy attempted to postpone the start of the high seas fishery to allow the squid to grow, and attempted to curtail the end of the season to allow the remaining squid to spawn and produce the following year's stock. The policy also sought to reduce the number of vessels fishing Illex on the high seas in conjunction with limits on the number of vessels allowed to fish in Falkland zones.

The policy of reducing fishing effort on the high seas had some success, but it was difficult to make it work really effectively on a unilateral basis. In 1993 Argentina allowed access to its EEZ for foreign jiggers targeting Illex squid. From that point any effort to reduce fishing effort on the high seas would have required co-operation between the Falklands and Argentina.

The creation of the South Atlantic Fisheries Commission (SAFC) involving Britain and Argentina was announced in December 1990. The SAFC was set up to assess the state of relevant fish stocks and to make recommendations to both Argentine and UK Governments on the conservation of such resources. One of the specific functions of the SAFC was given as "to recommend to both Governments possible actions for the conservation in international waters of migratory and straddling stocks and species related to them." The SAFC has discussed the problem of the level of fishing in international waters (the area at 201 miles) since then.

In 1995 the United Nations Conference on Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks concluded. The agreement which ensued from this conference, provided a framework for addressing conservation problems in relation to straddling stocks, such as Illex argentinus.

The Joint Statement