The global fisheries catch has not increased since 1988, and an estimated 70 percent of world stocks are fully fished, overfished, or depleted. Clearly, a reduction in fisheries catches adequate enough to enable global fish stocks to recover and accumulate, is called for. This requires effective monitoring of fishery industry activities on the high seas, such as the right to board and inspect fishing vessels in international waters.
In early 1995, the Canada-Spain fisheries dispute stimulated over 90 countries to agree on a draft UN agreement that includes enforcement measures similar in some cases to what Canada employed when it first boarded and seized a Spanish trawler on the high seas.