Secretive regional fisheries management organizations need media coverage

Seventeen regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs) regulate commercially valuable fish species across the world's oceans. The members of these organizations do not publicize their meetings and bar journalists from attending, presenting a barrier for public awareness.

On this episode of the Mongabay Newscast, Africa staff writer Malavika Vyawahare is joined by a fisheries expert, Grantly Galland, and an RFMO secretary, Darius Campbell, to explain how decisions are made in regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs), the consequences their decisions have on global fish populations, human rights and labor rights on the high seas, and how journalists can better cover these secretive organizations.

“Decisions are being made by RFMOs that impact billion-dollar fisheries and take effect next year [so] these stories deserve to be told,” says Grantly Galland, a project director at the Pew Charitable Trusts.

Also joining the conversation is Darius Campbell, secretary of the North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission, an RFMO.

“The sea is [vast and it’s] very difficult to understand what's going on. Most of the [fish] stocks are very difficult to analyze and predict. And it's difficult to enforce [rules],” Campbell says.

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Image credit: Schools of fish at Cayman Islands, Caribbean. Image by Jason Washington / Ocean Image Bank.

Timecodes

(00:00:00) What is an RFMO?

(00:07:37) Who are the key players?

(00:13:18) Who holds the power?

(00:20:32) Strategies for journalists covering RFMOs

(00:29:47) Transparency and secrecy

(00:38:59) Conservation and RFMO decision-making

(00:48:10) Forced labor and human rights

(00:53:29) What happens when an RFMO breaks the rules?

(01:01:13) Common heritage vs high seas

(01:07:13) BBNJ agreement

(01:15:24) Citizen participation

(01:19:09) Resources

(01:21:39) Credits