Glossary |
P |
| Packwood-Magnuson
Amendment, Pelly Amendment |
|
| Two pieces of domestic legislation in the United States which give the President the power to authorize trade sanctions against States which engage in activities deemed by the United States to undermine the effectiveness of international environmental agreements, including CITES or the International Convention for the Regulation of Whaling, whether or not the foreign State is acting illegally. These amendments have given rise to a number of objections from other States. | |
| pelagic | |
| Pelagic fish - such as tunas and sharks - spend most of their life swimming - usually in schools - in the water column between the bottom and the surface. They usually feed on smaller fish or crustaceans. | |
| pinnipeds | |
| Group of marine mammals, of the Order Pinnipedia, containing seals, sealions and walruses. | |
| port State control | |
| Port State control refers to a system of fisheries enforcement whereby States inspect vessels when they are in its ports. It is a system yet to be explored fully in fisheries management, although it is already employed with considerable success in international pollution law. The concept has recently been introduced in the FAO Code of Conduct and the UN Straddling Stocks Agreement, although neither texts develop the criteria upon which a system of port state control is to be based. | |
| pots IMAGE | |
| These are a type of trap in the form of cages or baskets with one or more openings or entrances. They can be made from various materials (such as wood, wicker, metal rods, etc.). They are usually set at the bottom, with or without bait, singly or in rows, connected by ropes (buoy-lines) to buoys showing their position on the surface. | |
| precautionary principle (or approach) | |
| A developed notion of the precautionary principle is relatively new to fisheries management, although it is well established in other areas of international environmental law. There is no generally accepted definition of the precautionary principle in international fisheries law, although three broad factors may be identified: preventative anticipation, i.e. taking action to prevent the over-exploitation of stocks before it actually occurs; allowance for a margin of error; and the principle that lack of full scientific certainty should not be used as a reason for postponing conservation and management measures where there is a threat of serious or irreversible damage (see Principle 15 of the UNCED Rio Declaration). The difficulty arises, however, as in all risk assessment strategies, in selecting an appropriate reference point for precautionary action. This has generated considerable debate - usually couched in terms of an argument for an approach as opposed to a principle, which is not always a helpful or meaningful distinction - in fisheries, where considerable scientific uncertainty means that risks can never be completely eliminated. The international response has been to develop a ideas of a precautionary approach - by means of precautionary reference points (see next entry) designed towards risk reduction in individual cases. | |
| precautionary reference points | |
| Reference points are used in precautionary management to define acceptable levels of mortality and recruitment criteria. Two types of reference point are can be distinguished: limit (or conservation) reference points and target (or management) reference points. Limit reference points represent the outer limit within which fish stocks can produce maximum sustainable yield. Target reference points, on the other hand, are set at some point lower than the limit reference point and are intended to meet management objectives. Thus, under such a system, MSY would no longer be a target (a management objective) but an outer limit that should not be breached. The intention is to keep all harvests below MSY and, when the target reference point is exceeded so that a stock falls below or is at risk of falling below the limit reference point, automatic management measures should be initiated to allow the stock to rebuild. | |
| purse-seines IMAGE | |
| Purse-seines, which are a type of surrounding net, are characterized by the use of a purse line at the bottom of the net. The purse line enables the net to be close like a purse, and thus retain all the fish caught. Purse seines may be very large and are sometimes operated by two boats, although in most cases only one boat is used, with or without a skiff (a small auxiliary boat). Tuna purse seiners are large vessels, equipped to handle very large and heavy purse seine nets for tuna. | |