The precautionary principle has become an essential feature of current fisheries management and development as a result of past and continuing ineffective management of marine resource exploitation. Developed countries and in particular those with Distant Water Fishing Vessels have overexploited their fisheries resources, which accentuated the need for improved management. The developing countries seemed intent on following their example. The situation clearly pointed to the need for improved management, rather than development, in fisheries. However, there are few examples in the world of good fisheries management. The realization of the need for better management led to international conventions and agreements such as the Third United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the Straddling Fish Stocks and the Highly Migratory Fish Stocks Agreement.

These instruments are the foundation upon which the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries and the precautionary approach to Fisheries have been established.

This presentation will deal with the precautionary principle and approach as it applies to marine species. To do so, it will cover the following aspects:

• The evolution of the precautionary principle in fisheries management;
• The precautionary principle outlined in the FAO Code of Conduct; and
• The implications of the precautionary principle for fisheries management and development.

The LOS Convention (1982) provided a new framework for the better management of marine resources (FAO (1995) Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, p v). It indicated that coastal states should establish Total Allowable Catches (TACs) based on scientific assessments of stocks and that these states could take what they had the capacity to take, but the remainder had to be shared with other countries that desired to participate or had participated historically in these fisheries. This led to problems for many developing countries which did not possess neither the scientific expertise nor the required infrastructure to determine TAC. In addition, countries that share regional resources had the additional problem of organizing regional management and development programmes. Not being able to establish TACs, many of these states assumed all the resources to themselves, refusing to permit foreign access to their fisheries. Others permitted foreign access without knowing what this meant for the sustainability of their resources. In both cases, this was contrary to the spirit and objectives of the UNCLOS. The appearance and adoption of the precautionary principle came as a solution to these and other problems. Countries could no longer use the lack of knowledge about their stocks as a means of not making management decisions on marine resources under their jurisdiction.

The genesis of the precautionary approach goes back to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea. After UNCLOS came into effect in 1982, it became apparent from the problems encountered in the world's fisheries, that the Convention or some of its provisions had to be strengthened. Fisheries resources were still being overexploited, a large number of highly migratory and straddling stocks were not being managed effectively or not at all, and countries did not have clear or consistent objectives for fisheries management and development. In 1991, the Committee on Fisheries (COFI) called for the development of new concepts that would lead to responsible and sustained fisheries.