Do fisheries organisations and agreements provide an appropriate framework for sustainable management of deep-sea fisheries in the high seas?

Deep-sea fisheries are an aspect of the governance gap on the high seas. In recent years these fisheries have raised the attention of the UN General Assembly and, under its impulse, FAO has adopted International Guidelines in 2008 and the European Community has adopted a regulation. Regional Fisheries organizations are in the process of taking measures. The existing legal framework to deal with deep-sea fisheries, especially in light of the need to preserve Vulnerable Marine Ecosystems, is insufficient. The UN Law of the Sea Convention and the UN Stocks Agreement contain nonetheless significant provisions and have an in-built flexibility that permits to extend some of their provisions to some aspects of deep-sea fisheries. Examples are the compulsory jurisdiction of international courts under the UN Convention and Agreement and the extension to "discrete" fisheries of the precautionary and ecosystem approaches set out in the Stocks Agreement. The road ahead should consist in developing action and coverage of Regional Fisheries Organizations and Agreements in light of the suggestions set out in the FAO Guidelines and in developing to the maximum extent the potential of existing rules.