The global community should work at establishing an array of new international legal rules to protect the health of fishing stocks, new research says.
Rather than one set of laws covering all possible maritime sustainability issues, there should be a range of different rules, each with their own distinct objectives and mandates.
Change is necessary because the World Trade Organization Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies in its current form fails to satisfactorily address several important issues, the study says.
Any new international legal rules should complement not only one another and the existing international law of the sea. They should permit a division of responsibilities conducive to the effective planning and execution of sustainability-oriented practices.
The study says the FSA offers a great deal of hope for the much-needed regulation of fishery subsidies but must overcome several outstanding problems. These include an incomplete formulation of fishery subsidies, such as those destined for fuel, and an unwieldly dispute settlement mechanism.
The FSA, adopted by the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2022, was subject to considerable negotiations and revisions, coming into effect on September 15, 2025. It was designed to target illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing; the overexploitation of fishery stocks; and reinforce the important regulatory roles of Regional Fishery Management Organisations.
It was an effort to integrate fishery regulations into existing international regimes despite the challenges arising from the traditional territorial structures of international law.
The analysis was carried out by I-Ju Chen, from the University of Exeter.
Dr Chen said: "The FSA recognises the importance of environmental sustainability for economic stability, food security, and ocean health and is thus the first WTO treaty to have, at its core, the goal of environmental sustainability. Because the WTO itself is focused primarily not on fishery sustainability but on effective free trade, the WTO's FSA is an excellent example of how environmental-sustainability goals can be integrated into existing international law.
"In some key ways, the FSA is more suitable than other international fishery regulations owing to its streamlined focus on the often destructive role played by fishery subsidies in the ongoing depletion of fishery stocks around the world.
