Legal background International law: the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, the United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement and Regional Fishery Management Organisations Regional Fishery Management Organisations (RFMOs)
As envisaged by UNCLOS and UNFSA, a large number of RFMOs have been established by coastal States and States fishing on the high seas. RFMOs are established by multilateral treaties and are intended to strengthen regional cooperation in order to promote conservation and sustainable exploitation of fish resources on the high seas, straddling stocks and highly migratory species. While some RFMOs have a purely advisory role, most have management powers to set catch and fishing effort limits, technical measures, and control obligations in order to establish measures for the control and monitoring of fishing activities. The EU is a member of 17 of these organisations. The EU’s exclusive competence in this area means that the UK is currently a member of only two RFMOs on behalf of a number of its overseas territories.
	From 1st January 2021, the UK will join a number of RFMOs in its own right and will be bound directly by the conservation and management measures adopted by these RFMOs as a result.