The development of the Palau Arrangement for the management of the Western Pacific Purse Seine Fishery

In the early 1990s, island States of the South Pacific, confronted with the need to develop appropriate arrangements to enable them to manage highly migratory fish stocks in the western central Pacific ocean, developed the Palau Arrangement for the Management of the Western Pacific Purse Seine Fishery. This paper traces the development of the Palau Arrangement from a legal and political perspective. The implementation of the Arrangement has led to tension between coastal States and States fishing in the region which will need to be resolved if both sides are to fulfil the duty to cooperate in the management of highly migratory fish stocks under LOSC and the 1995 Agreement on Straddling Fish Stocks and Highly Migratory Fish Stocks.