OceanLaw On-Line Paper No. 22, September 2003

Applying the Precautionary Approach to the Management of Atlantic Salmon
 – A Report on the Twentieth Annual Meeting of the North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization

M Windsor and P Hutchinson
NASCO

Abstract
The North Atlantic Salmon Conservation Organization held its Twentieth Annual Meeting in Edinburgh, Scotland, during 2-6 June 2003. In response to concern about the status of Atlantic salmon stocks, NASCO and its Contracting Parties agreed to adopt and apply a Precautionary Approach to the conservation, management and exploitation of salmon in order to protect the resource and preserve the environments in which it lives. At its Twentieth Annual Meeting, NASCO adopted a new resolution, the Williamsburg Resolution, that consolidates and improves the Organization’s existing strategy to minimise the impacts of introductions and transfers, aquaculture and transgenics on the wild salmon stocks. This paper reviews the new Resolution and NASCO's development of the precautionary approach to the management of Atlantic salmon.