Fisheries management and flags of convenience

The over-exploitation of the world's fish resources and the depletion of many fish stocks have brought into focus the need for effective fisheries management and conservation measures. Many states have adopted international instruments or have participated in regional conservation committees to regulate and control fishing activities within their jurisdiction as well as on the high seas. However, compliance with the provisions of the fishery laws has been limited and as fishing restrictions increase, more incidents of illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing activities are being reported. IUU fishing is facilitated by the use of flags of convenience (FOC), which enable fishing vessel owners to escape regulations, and often avoid liability for their actions. Many measures have been introduced and many existing laws have been reinforced to address the implications of FOCs in effective fisheries management. However, the FOC fishing fleet continues to increase, indicating that there are flaws in the current regulatory scheme. The objective of this thesis is to identify those flaws by examining both the conservation regime for fisheries as well as the role of FOCs in the world's fish trade, rather than focusing solely on their negative impact.

Department dc:contributor.department

Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Dept. of Ocean Engineering.

Grantor dc:publisher

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Year dc:date.issued

2004

Author dc:creator

• Papaioannou, Maria Andriana

Advisor dc:contributor.advisor

• Hauke Kite-Powell.

• Ocean Engineering.

Statement dc:rights

• M.I.T. theses are protected by copyright. They may be viewed from this source for any purpose, but reproduction or distribution in any format is prohibited without written permission. See provided URL for inquiries about permission.

Licence dc:rights.uri

• http://dspace.mit.edu/handle/1721.1/7582

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/33432

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:dspace.mit.edu:1721.1/33432