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pollution and the physical degradation of coastal and marine 

 areas are increasingly recognized as posing serious threats to 

 the health of the seas. Yet, here again, little information 

 exists upon which to base an assessment of the impacts to fish 

 and other marine species, and even less is being done to mitigate 

 the risks. 



The fundamental failure to limit the rapid expansion and scale of 

 fishing, and the environmental impacts of fishing and other human 

 activities, is threatening not only commercially targeted fish 

 populations and the viability of fisheries, but also a vast array 

 of other marine species, marine biodiversity and many millions of 

 people worldwide who depend on fish for food and livelihoods. 



STRADDLING AND HIGHLY MIGRATORY FISH STOCKS 



As with fisheries generally, there has been a rapid expansion 

 of effort on straddling and highly migratory stocks — stocks 

 fished both on the high seas and in zones of national 

 jurisdiction. For example, world landings of all tunas have more 

 than doubled in the last 20 years from approximately 1.9 million 

 tons/yr in the early 1970s to 4.2 million tons in 1990. 



With the widespread adoption of EEZs, many coastal states 

 have aggressively pursued the development of fisheries within 

 newly acquired areas of national jurisdiction. Often the 



