But most of the regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs) responsible for overseeing key international fisheries lack basic rules to ensure the long-term health of fish stocks.
Collectively, RFMOs oversee activities in more than 95% of the ocean and include more than half of the world’s governments. It is imperative that these bodies have science-based, enforceable rules for the species they manage.
For more than a decade, The Pew Charitable Trusts has worked across multiple RFMOs to help these bodies modernize their management of international fisheries by adopting precautionary harvest strategies for the stocks they manage; reforming oversight of longline fishing and transshipment practices; implementing robust enforcement and compliance systems to ensure that the rules set for these fisheries are followed; and promoting protections for vulnerable species and critical habitats affected by these fisheries.
In 2025, the project launched a new page to highlight this ongoing RFMO work under the international fisheries project.
