FAO FISHERIES TECHNICAL PAPER 353

Living marine resources and their sustainable development
Some environmental and institutional perspectives

J.F. Caddy
Marine Resources Service
FAO Fisheries Department
and

R.C. Griffiths
Consultant
Saint Cloud, France

The designations employed and the presentation of material in this publication do not imply the expression of any opinion whatsoever on the part of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries.

M-43
ISBN 92-5-103763-9

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Applications for such permission, with a statement of the purpose and extent of the reproduction, should be addressed to the Director, Publications Division, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy.

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Rome, 1995
© FAO

PREPARATION OF THIS DOCUMENT

The first draft of this paper was prepared at the invitation of the Secretariat of the United Nations Conference on Environment and Development (UNCED) in July 1991, and summarized as UNCED Research Paper No. 5, entitled “Living Marine Resources” for use as a background paper in preparation for the conference in Rio de Janeiro, June 1992.

The document has been extensively revised subsequently to reflect events since the Earth Summit '92, and is intended to perform the following functions, notably:

To be a companion volume to the Review of the State of World Marine Fishery Resources”, issued by the Marine Resources Service in 1994 as FAO Fisheries Technical Paper 335;
To serve as a discussion and reference paper at meetings which discuss marine resource policy in relation to the environment;
To function as a source paper for key publications and conference documents over a broad range of related subject areas;
To provide a broad environmental perspective to discussions on marine resource use policy in the light of Agenda 21, as well as relevant issues from the 1982 Convention on the Law of the Sea; the Cancun Conference on Responsible Fishing, and relevant documents from the 1992 FAO Committee on Fisheries, among others.

The authors express their gratitude to many colleagues for inputs made; in particular to Mr. Uwe Barg for useful input, and to Ms Jackie Ellis and Mrs Raymonde Véry-Marotta who were responsible for final typing.

Distribution:

FAO Fisheries Department
FAO Regional fisheries Officers
Directors of Fisheries
Regional and International Fisheries Organizations
Authors

Caddy, J.F.; Griffiths, R.C.
Living marine resources and their sustainable development: some environmental and institutional perspectives.
FAO Fisheries Technical Paper. No. 353. FAO, Rome. 1995. 167p.

ABSTRACT

This document provides a broad perspective on issues related to living marine resources, their environment and management in the post-UNCED context provided by Agenda 21 and the Cancun Conference. The document begins with a sectorial discussion of sustainable development of living resources of nearshore and estuarine, semi-enclosed seas, coastal and shelf waters, the high seas and Antarctic waters. Constraints on harvesting, impacts of marine pollution, and potentials for further development of resources are addressed. Each section concludes with a discussion of elements that can be included in a programme for addressing resource management, and provides a list of references on key literature related to the themes discussed, and a series of annexes which provide a glossary of key concepts, list of acronyms, list of fisheries commissions, International Organizations concerned with marine affairs, excerpts from conventions and other international agreements relating to living marine resources and their environment.

Hyperlinks to non-FAO Internet sites do not imply any official endorsement of or responsibility for the opinions, ideas, data or products presented at these locations, or guarantee the validity of the information provided. The sole purpose of links to non-FAO sites is to indicate further information available on related topics.

1. INTRODUCTION

1.1 OVERALL OBJECTIVES

1.2 SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT AND WILD FISHERIES

2. THE STATE OF LIVING MARINE RESOURCES AND THEIR ENVIRONMENT

2.1 NEARSHORE AND ESTUARINE RESOURCES AND THEIR ENVIRONMENT

2.1.1 Coastal Zones, Coastal Populations and Coastal Resources

2.1.2 Fisheries in Estuaries and along the Coastal Fringe

2.1.3 Coastal Marine Aquaculture

2.1.4 Eutrophication and the Special Case of Phosphorus

2.1.5 Other Ocean-Atmospheric Linkages

2.1.6 Proposed Actions

2.2 COASTAL AND SHELF-SEA RESOURCES AND THEIR ENVIRONMENT