The Precautionary approach to fisheries management: How this is taken into account by Tuna regional fisheries management organisations (RFMOs)

For several decades it has been acknowledged that there is an urgent need for new approaches to fisheries management, embracing conservation and environmental considerations. The voluntary Code of Conduct on Responsible Fishing and the United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement provide the formal basis for the Precautionary Approach to fisheries management. Some tuna Regional Fisheries Management Organisations such as the WCPFC and IATTC make explicit mention of these codes in their conventions, whilst others, whose conventions do not explicitly address the Precautionary Approach, are searching for ways in which to take these codes into consideration. In practical terms, the scientific obligations to Precautionary Approaches are to determine the status of the stock(s) relative to limit and target reference points, to predict outcomes of management alternatives for reaching the targets and avoiding the limits, and to characterise the uncertainty in both cases. A convenient framework to conduct management evaluations is through the use of harvest control rules, for which managers agree on specific management actions under their control which are evoked according to levels of stock status relative to predefined reference points. These pre-agreed management actions are then simulated for a range of scenarios. This paper presents the ways in which tuna RFMOs are currently incorporating the precautionary approach in their fisheries management as well as suggestions for possible best practice.