Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing
Encyclopedia
Illegal fishing takes place where vessels operate in violation of the laws of a fishery
. This can apply to fisheries that are under the jurisdiction of a coastal state or to high seas
fisheries regulated by regional organisations.
Unreported fishing is fishing that has been unreported or misreported to the relevant national authority or regional organisation, in contravention of applicable laws and regulations.
Unregulated fishing generally refers to fishing by vessels without nationality, or vessels flying the flag of a country not party to the regional organisation governing that fishing area or species.
The drivers behind illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing are clear enough, and similar to those behind many other types of international environmental crime
. Most obviously, pirate fishers have a strong economic incentive: many species of fish, particularly those that have been over-exploited and are thus in short supply, are of high value.
Such IUU activity may then show a high chance of success – i.e. a high rate of return
– from the failure of governments to regulate adequately (e.g. inadequate coverage of international agreements), or to enforce national or international laws (e.g. because of lack of capacity, or poor levels of governance). A particular driver behind IUU fishing is the failure of a number of flag states to exercise any effective regulation over ships on their registers—which in turn creates an incentive for ships to register under these flags of convenience.
Since no-one is reporting catches made by pirates, their level of fishing cannot be accurately quantified. However, industry observers think that IUU occurs in most fisheries, and accounts for up to 30% of total catches in some important fisheries.
These losses include not only the loss to GNP, but revenue from landing fee
s, licence fees and taxes payable by legal fishing operators. In addition, there are indirect impacts in terms of loss of income and employment in related industries; any loss in income will also have impacts on the consumer demands of families working in the fishing industry
.
Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing usually has a significant impact on the sustainability of both the targeted species and the ecosystem.
Fishing generally has the capacity to damage fragile marine ecosystems and vulnerable species such as coral reef
s, turtles and seabirds. In fact, all eight sea turtle
species are now endangered, and illegal fishing and hunting are two major reasons for their destruction. Regulating legitimate fisheries is aimed at mitigating such impacts, but IUU fishers rarely comply with regulations. This is likely to reduce productivity and biodiversity and create imbalances in the ecosystem.
This in turn may lead to reduced food security
in communities heavily dependent on fish as a source of animal protein.
and catch documentation are increasingly used as a natural extension of normal monitoring and enforcement in fisheries, and as a means of excluding IUU products from consumer markets and therefore rewarding responsible fishing with protected markets. The concept is increasingly common in other markets, including those for timber and for diamonds.
The use of certification or catch document schemes is encouraged in the FAO
's International Plan of Action on IUU Fishing. Several RFMOs include them, including CCAMLR's Catch Documentation Scheme for Toothfish, CCSBT's Trade Information Scheme for Southern Bluefin Tuna and ICCAT's Bluefin Tuna Statistical Document Programme. Similar systems are applied at a national level, including the USA's Certification of Origin of Tuna and Tuna Tracking and Verification Systems, Japan's reporting requirements (including area of capture) for all imports or transportation of tunas into Japan by boat, and the EU’s labelling of all fish products (including area of capture).
(MSC) is an international non-profit organization
that runs a certification and ecolabelling program for traceable, sustainable seafood.
To achieve certification as sustainable a fishery must meet a standard based on three principles:
Fisheries that meet the MSC standard for a sustainable fishery can use the blue MSC ecolabel on their seafood products.
The second element of the program is a certification for seafood traceability. This is called MSC Chain of Custody. From the fishery, every company in the supply chain
that handles the certified fish is checked to ensure the MSC label is only applied to fish products that come from a certified fishery. This requires effective record-keeping and storage procedures. This traceability element of the program helps to keep illegally fished seafood out of the supply chain by linking seafood sold in shops and restaurants to a certified sustainable fishery.
The MSC ecolabel enables consumers to easily identify sustainable seafood when shopping or dining out. As of April 2010, there are nearly 4,000 MSC-labelled seafood products sold in over 60 countries around the world. The MSC website lists outlets selling MSC-certified seafood.
The MSC-certified South Georgia Patagonian toothfish
fishery provides a good example of how good fisheries management
can reverse the trend of illegal fishing. The fishery took significant steps to exclude illegal vessels from its waters:
- Strict vessel licensing system is rigorously enforced with limited landing points, controlled by the port authorities.
- No transshipment is allowed.
- Every pound of fish landed is monitored through tamper-proof satellite surveillance of on-board weighing scales and GPS locations of vessels.
- On landing, boxed product is applied with a barcode label to ensure there is no introduction of illegal fish into the supply chain.
These are only some of the measures taken by the fishery to achieve MSC certification in March 2004. Further information on the South Georgia Patagonian toothfish fishery.
operations. It has been developed to raise standards in the catching sector and demonstrate a vessel operates to industry good practice guidelines. The scheme helps to meet the needs of the seafood supply chain. The sector needs to provide tangible evidence and a practical demonstration of their commitment to the responsible sourcing of seafood. This scheme
does just that. A vessel’s certification to the scheme is an assurance that the fish landed by that vessel has been caught responsibly. It will also give the vessel a tool to allow them to positively position itself in the global marketplace.
Based on a Publicly Available Specification developed by Seafish in collaboration with the British Standards Institution (BSI), the Responsible Fishing Scheme is a means of recognising responsible fishing practices for individual vessels operating in a diverse range of fisheries under international agreements. It covers five key areas, namely: environmental issues, fishing practices, crew competence, vessel criteria and record maintenance. Ultimately it is designed to promote and recognise good practice. As of March 2009 the scheme boasts 585 vessels in various stages of assessment with over 300 certified.
There are obvious problems with enforcing fisheries regulations on the high seas, including locating and apprehending the pirate ships, but solutions are available, chiefly through improved monitoring and surveillance systems.
MSC
systems are similarly of value within exclusive economic zones, including, for example, offshore patrols and licensing schemes.
The EU then proceeded to develop its own plan to implement the commitments agreed at international level, and the European Commission‘s action plan for the eradication of IUU fishing was published in May 2002. It is intended to be implemented at four levels:
At the EU level, more responsibility will be requested with regard to member state nationals acting under a flag of convenience
. Moreover, market measures concerning fisheries products caught in violation of the international agreements will be adopted. In addition, information actions addressed to the fishing industry, consumers, and the public will be launched to raise their awareness.
In the framework of Regional Fisheries Organisations, control and inspection plans would be adopted as well as specific conservation and management measures. In addition IUU vessels would be identified and monitored and their catches would be quantified.
At the international level, concepts like genuine link would be defined, and a number of rights and obligations of the port state would be established. Moreover, the exchange of information on IUU activities and the international co-operation would be strengthened.
In partnership with developing countries, the necessary means would be provided to enable them to effectively control fishing activities undertaken in waters under their jurisdiction.
comprises a group of fisheries ministers and international NGOs working together to develop an action plan designed to combat IUU fishing on the high seas.
Launched in 2003, the Task Force includes fisheries ministers from Australia, Canada, Chile, Namibia, New Zealand and the UK, together with the Earth Institute, IUCN-World Conservation Union, WWF
International and the Marine Stewardship Council
.
The goal of the Task Force is to set priorities among a series of practical proposals for confronting the challenge of IUU fishing on the high seas. A series of expert panels have been convened to identify the legal, economic, scientific and enforcement factors that permit IUU activity to thrive, and then determine key points of leverage that can brought to bear at national, regional, and global levels to minimise the incentives to carry out IUU fishing on the high seas. The completed action plan, published on 3 March 2006, will be placed by ministerial members of the Task Force directly in the hands of other ministers.
s (RFMOs) are affiliations of nations that co-ordinate efforts to manage fisheries in a particular region.
RFMOs may focus on certain species of fish (e.g. the Commission for the Conservation of Southern bluefin tuna
) or have a wider remit related to living marine resources in general within a region (e.g. the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR
)). This wide diversity of mandates and areas of application, and also effective implementation of regulations, opens up opportunities for IUU vessels. Learn more here.
of measures in the form of binding and non-binding instruments with different geographical and legal reaches and different levels of participation.
Most legal instruments build on the foundation established by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea
, which was agreed in 1982 and entered into force in 1992.
The UN Fish Stocks Agreement, which entered into force in 2001, sets out principles for the conservation and management of fish stocks and establishes that such management must be based on the precautionary approach and the best available scientific information. The Agreement provides a framework for cooperation on conservation and management, but since only about a third of the parties to the Law of the Sea Convention have ratified it, its impact is inevitably limited.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) carries out much of the technical work on international fisheries management, and provides a forum for the negotiation of agreements and codes of conduct. In 1995 the FAO agreed its Code of Conduct
for Responsible Fisheries to promote long-term sustainable management
.
In 2001, the FAO adopted the International Plan of Action (IPOA) on IUU Fishing. The aim of this voluntary instrument is to prevent, deter and eliminate IUU fishing by providing all states with comprehensive, effective and transparent measures by which to act, including through appropriate regional fisheries management organisations established in accordance with international law.
The FAO Compliance Agreement, which entered into force in 2003, is designed to close a major loophole in international fisheries management, that of the circumvention of fisheries regulations by ‘re-flagging‘ vessels under the flags of states that are unable or unwilling to enforce such measures.
In 2009, the FAO brokered a treaty between 92 nations (The agreement on port state measures to prevent, deter and eliminate illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing) that would close ports to vessels suspected of illegal fishing. The treaty would require vessels request permission to dock and to inform the port details of its fishing operations. Permission to dock could be denied if unregulated fishing was occurring. The measure would help block illegally caught fish from entering the marketplace. Other measures in the treaty include inspections of equipment, paperwork, catches and ship's records. Though the treaty does not compel countries to apply these measures to ships under its own flag, they are free to include them under the agreement.
Fishery
Generally, a fishery is an entity engaged in raising or harvesting fish which is determined by some authority to be a fishery. According to the FAO, a fishery is typically defined in terms of the "people involved, species or type of fish, area of water or seabed, method of fishing, class of boats,...
. This can apply to fisheries that are under the jurisdiction of a coastal state or to high seas
International waters
The terms international waters or trans-boundary waters apply where any of the following types of bodies of water transcend international boundaries: oceans, large marine ecosystems, enclosed or semi-enclosed regional seas and estuaries, rivers, lakes, groundwater systems , and wetlands.Oceans,...
fisheries regulated by regional organisations.
Unreported fishing is fishing that has been unreported or misreported to the relevant national authority or regional organisation, in contravention of applicable laws and regulations.
Unregulated fishing generally refers to fishing by vessels without nationality, or vessels flying the flag of a country not party to the regional organisation governing that fishing area or species.
The drivers behind illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing are clear enough, and similar to those behind many other types of international environmental crime
Environmental crime
Environmental crime can be broadly defined as illegal acts, which directly harmthe environment. International bodies such as the G8, Interpol, EU, UN Environment Programme and the UN Interregional Crime and Justice Research Institute have recognised the following environmental crimes:* Illegal...
. Most obviously, pirate fishers have a strong economic incentive: many species of fish, particularly those that have been over-exploited and are thus in short supply, are of high value.
Such IUU activity may then show a high chance of success – i.e. a high rate of return
Rate of return
In finance, rate of return , also known as return on investment , rate of profit or sometimes just return, is the ratio of money gained or lost on an investment relative to the amount of money invested. The amount of money gained or lost may be referred to as interest, profit/loss, gain/loss, or...
– from the failure of governments to regulate adequately (e.g. inadequate coverage of international agreements), or to enforce national or international laws (e.g. because of lack of capacity, or poor levels of governance). A particular driver behind IUU fishing is the failure of a number of flag states to exercise any effective regulation over ships on their registers—which in turn creates an incentive for ships to register under these flags of convenience.
Since no-one is reporting catches made by pirates, their level of fishing cannot be accurately quantified. However, industry observers think that IUU occurs in most fisheries, and accounts for up to 30% of total catches in some important fisheries.
Economic and environmental impacts
The most obvious economic impact of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing on developing countries is the direct loss of the value of the catches that could be taken by local fishermen if the IUU fishing was not taking place. Available estimates place the economic loss of illegal fishing to be between $10 billion to $23 billion annually.These losses include not only the loss to GNP, but revenue from landing fee
Landing fee
A landing fee is a charge paid by an aircraft to an airport company for landing at a particular airport. Landing fees can vary greatly between airports, with congested airports, ones where most of the landing slots are held by airlines being able to charge premium prices because of supply and...
s, licence fees and taxes payable by legal fishing operators. In addition, there are indirect impacts in terms of loss of income and employment in related industries; any loss in income will also have impacts on the consumer demands of families working in the fishing industry
Fishing industry
The fishing industry includes any industry or activity concerned with taking, culturing, processing, preserving, storing, transporting, marketing or selling fish or fish products....
.
Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing usually has a significant impact on the sustainability of both the targeted species and the ecosystem.
Fishing generally has the capacity to damage fragile marine ecosystems and vulnerable species such as coral reef
Coral reef
Coral reefs are underwater structures made from calcium carbonate secreted by corals. Coral reefs are colonies of tiny living animals found in marine waters that contain few nutrients. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, which in turn consist of polyps that cluster in groups. The polyps...
s, turtles and seabirds. In fact, all eight sea turtle
Sea turtle
Sea turtles are marine reptiles that inhabit all of the world's oceans except the Arctic.-Distribution:...
species are now endangered, and illegal fishing and hunting are two major reasons for their destruction. Regulating legitimate fisheries is aimed at mitigating such impacts, but IUU fishers rarely comply with regulations. This is likely to reduce productivity and biodiversity and create imbalances in the ecosystem.
This in turn may lead to reduced food security
Food security
Food security refers to the availability of food and one's access to it. A household is considered food-secure when its occupants do not live in hunger or fear of starvation. According to the World Resources Institute, global per capita food production has been increasing substantially for the past...
in communities heavily dependent on fish as a source of animal protein.
Certification
Mandatory product certificationProduct certification
Product certification or product qualification is the process of verifying that a certain product has passed performance tests and quality assurance tests or qualification requirements stipulated in contracts, regulations, or specifications...
and catch documentation are increasingly used as a natural extension of normal monitoring and enforcement in fisheries, and as a means of excluding IUU products from consumer markets and therefore rewarding responsible fishing with protected markets. The concept is increasingly common in other markets, including those for timber and for diamonds.
The use of certification or catch document schemes is encouraged in the FAO
Fão
Fão is a town in Esposende Municipality in Portugal....
's International Plan of Action on IUU Fishing. Several RFMOs include them, including CCAMLR's Catch Documentation Scheme for Toothfish, CCSBT's Trade Information Scheme for Southern Bluefin Tuna and ICCAT's Bluefin Tuna Statistical Document Programme. Similar systems are applied at a national level, including the USA's Certification of Origin of Tuna and Tuna Tracking and Verification Systems, Japan's reporting requirements (including area of capture) for all imports or transportation of tunas into Japan by boat, and the EU’s labelling of all fish products (including area of capture).
Marine Stewardship Council
The Marine Stewardship CouncilMarine Stewardship Council
The Marine Stewardship Council is an independent non-profit organization with an ecolabel and fishery certification programme. Fisheries that are assessed and meet the standard can use the MSC blue ecolabel. The MSC mission is to 'reward sustainable fishing practices’...
(MSC) is an international non-profit organization
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
that runs a certification and ecolabelling program for traceable, sustainable seafood.
To achieve certification as sustainable a fishery must meet a standard based on three principles:
- ensuring healthy fish stockFish stockFish stocks are subpopulations of a particular species of fish, for which intrinsic parameters are the only significant factors in determining population dynamics, while extrinsic factors are considered to be insignificant.-The stock concept:All species have geographic limits to their...
s - minimal impact on the marine ecosystem
- effective management (which includes ensuring the fishery operates within national and international laws).
Fisheries that meet the MSC standard for a sustainable fishery can use the blue MSC ecolabel on their seafood products.
The second element of the program is a certification for seafood traceability. This is called MSC Chain of Custody. From the fishery, every company in the supply chain
Supply chain
A supply chain is a system of organizations, people, technology, activities, information and resources involved in moving a product or service from supplier to customer. Supply chain activities transform natural resources, raw materials and components into a finished product that is delivered to...
that handles the certified fish is checked to ensure the MSC label is only applied to fish products that come from a certified fishery. This requires effective record-keeping and storage procedures. This traceability element of the program helps to keep illegally fished seafood out of the supply chain by linking seafood sold in shops and restaurants to a certified sustainable fishery.
The MSC ecolabel enables consumers to easily identify sustainable seafood when shopping or dining out. As of April 2010, there are nearly 4,000 MSC-labelled seafood products sold in over 60 countries around the world. The MSC website lists outlets selling MSC-certified seafood.
The MSC-certified South Georgia Patagonian toothfish
Patagonian toothfish
The Patagonian toothfish, Dissostichus eleginoides , is a fish found in the cold, temperate waters of the southern Atlantic, southern Pacific, Indian, and Southern Oceans on seamounts and continental shelves around most sub-Antarctic islands.A close relative, the Antarctic toothfish , is found...
fishery provides a good example of how good fisheries management
Fisheries management
Fisheries management draws on fisheries science in order to find ways to protect fishery resources so sustainable exploitation is possible. Modern fisheries management is often referred to as a governmental system of appropriate management rules based on defined objectives and a mix of management...
can reverse the trend of illegal fishing. The fishery took significant steps to exclude illegal vessels from its waters:
- Strict vessel licensing system is rigorously enforced with limited landing points, controlled by the port authorities.
- No transshipment is allowed.
- Every pound of fish landed is monitored through tamper-proof satellite surveillance of on-board weighing scales and GPS locations of vessels.
- On landing, boxed product is applied with a barcode label to ensure there is no introduction of illegal fish into the supply chain.
These are only some of the measures taken by the fishery to achieve MSC certification in March 2004. Further information on the South Georgia Patagonian toothfish fishery.
The Responsible Fishing Scheme
The Responsible Fishing Scheme was launched in May 2006. It is an independent, audited assessment of the application of good practice by a vessel skipper and crew in their fishingoperations. It has been developed to raise standards in the catching sector and demonstrate a vessel operates to industry good practice guidelines. The scheme helps to meet the needs of the seafood supply chain. The sector needs to provide tangible evidence and a practical demonstration of their commitment to the responsible sourcing of seafood. This scheme
does just that. A vessel’s certification to the scheme is an assurance that the fish landed by that vessel has been caught responsibly. It will also give the vessel a tool to allow them to positively position itself in the global marketplace.
Based on a Publicly Available Specification developed by Seafish in collaboration with the British Standards Institution (BSI), the Responsible Fishing Scheme is a means of recognising responsible fishing practices for individual vessels operating in a diverse range of fisheries under international agreements. It covers five key areas, namely: environmental issues, fishing practices, crew competence, vessel criteria and record maintenance. Ultimately it is designed to promote and recognise good practice. As of March 2009 the scheme boasts 585 vessels in various stages of assessment with over 300 certified.
Enforcement
Illegal and unreported fishing (two of the three components of IUU fishing) essentially arise from a failure to adequately enforce existing national and international laws. There are, however, many factors underlying enforcement failure, including, notably, poor levels of national governance.There are obvious problems with enforcing fisheries regulations on the high seas, including locating and apprehending the pirate ships, but solutions are available, chiefly through improved monitoring and surveillance systems.
MSC
Marine Stewardship Council
The Marine Stewardship Council is an independent non-profit organization with an ecolabel and fishery certification programme. Fisheries that are assessed and meet the standard can use the MSC blue ecolabel. The MSC mission is to 'reward sustainable fishing practices’...
systems are similarly of value within exclusive economic zones, including, for example, offshore patrols and licensing schemes.
EU Action Plan
The EU played an active role in drawing up the FAO‘s international plan of action to prevent, deter and eliminate IUU fishing, endorsed by the FAO Council in June 2001.The EU then proceeded to develop its own plan to implement the commitments agreed at international level, and the European Commission‘s action plan for the eradication of IUU fishing was published in May 2002. It is intended to be implemented at four levels:
At the EU level, more responsibility will be requested with regard to member state nationals acting under a flag of convenience
Flag of convenience
The term flag of convenience describes the business practice of registering a merchant ship in a sovereign state different from that of the ship's owners, and flying that state's civil ensign on the ship. Ships are registered under flags of convenience to reduce operating costs or avoid the...
. Moreover, market measures concerning fisheries products caught in violation of the international agreements will be adopted. In addition, information actions addressed to the fishing industry, consumers, and the public will be launched to raise their awareness.
In the framework of Regional Fisheries Organisations, control and inspection plans would be adopted as well as specific conservation and management measures. In addition IUU vessels would be identified and monitored and their catches would be quantified.
At the international level, concepts like genuine link would be defined, and a number of rights and obligations of the port state would be established. Moreover, the exchange of information on IUU activities and the international co-operation would be strengthened.
In partnership with developing countries, the necessary means would be provided to enable them to effectively control fishing activities undertaken in waters under their jurisdiction.
High Seas Task Force
The High Seas Task ForceWCPA High Seas Task Force
The World Commission on Protected Areas 's High Seas Task Force spans decades. It was officially established in 2003 following the Vth IUCN World Parks Congress where marine experts formulated a...
comprises a group of fisheries ministers and international NGOs working together to develop an action plan designed to combat IUU fishing on the high seas.
Launched in 2003, the Task Force includes fisheries ministers from Australia, Canada, Chile, Namibia, New Zealand and the UK, together with the Earth Institute, IUCN-World Conservation Union, WWF
World Wide Fund for Nature
The World Wide Fund for Nature is an international non-governmental organization working on issues regarding the conservation, research and restoration of the environment, formerly named the World Wildlife Fund, which remains its official name in Canada and the United States...
International and the Marine Stewardship Council
Marine Stewardship Council
The Marine Stewardship Council is an independent non-profit organization with an ecolabel and fishery certification programme. Fisheries that are assessed and meet the standard can use the MSC blue ecolabel. The MSC mission is to 'reward sustainable fishing practices’...
.
The goal of the Task Force is to set priorities among a series of practical proposals for confronting the challenge of IUU fishing on the high seas. A series of expert panels have been convened to identify the legal, economic, scientific and enforcement factors that permit IUU activity to thrive, and then determine key points of leverage that can brought to bear at national, regional, and global levels to minimise the incentives to carry out IUU fishing on the high seas. The completed action plan, published on 3 March 2006, will be placed by ministerial members of the Task Force directly in the hands of other ministers.
Regional Fisheries Management Organisations (RFMOs)
Regional Fisheries Management OrganisationRegional Fisheries Management Organisation
A Regional Fisheries Management Organisation , sometimes called regional fisheries organisation , is an international organisation dedicated to the sustainable management of fishery resources in a particular region of international waters, or of highly migratory species.RFMOs may focus on certain...
s (RFMOs) are affiliations of nations that co-ordinate efforts to manage fisheries in a particular region.
RFMOs may focus on certain species of fish (e.g. the Commission for the Conservation of Southern bluefin tuna
Southern bluefin tuna
The southern bluefin tuna, Thunnus maccoyii, is a tuna of the family Scombridae found in open southern hemisphere waters of all the world's oceans mainly between 30°S and 50°S, to nearly 60°S...
) or have a wider remit related to living marine resources in general within a region (e.g. the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR
Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources
The Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, also Commission on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, and CCAMLR, is part of the Antarctic Treaty System...
)). This wide diversity of mandates and areas of application, and also effective implementation of regulations, opens up opportunities for IUU vessels. Learn more here.
UN High Seas Processes
The present system of high seas governance has evolved over a period of several hundred years, the end result being a patchwork quiltPatchwork quilt
A patchwork quilt is a quilt in which the top layer consists of pieces of fabric sewn together to form a design. The quilting design does not necessarily follow the patchwork design, and the design of the quilting may play off the patchwork design....
of measures in the form of binding and non-binding instruments with different geographical and legal reaches and different levels of participation.
Most legal instruments build on the foundation established by the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea
United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea , also called the Law of the Sea Convention or the Law of the Sea treaty, is the international agreement that resulted from the third United Nations Conference on the Law of the Sea , which took place from 1973 through 1982...
, which was agreed in 1982 and entered into force in 1992.
The UN Fish Stocks Agreement, which entered into force in 2001, sets out principles for the conservation and management of fish stocks and establishes that such management must be based on the precautionary approach and the best available scientific information. The Agreement provides a framework for cooperation on conservation and management, but since only about a third of the parties to the Law of the Sea Convention have ratified it, its impact is inevitably limited.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) carries out much of the technical work on international fisheries management, and provides a forum for the negotiation of agreements and codes of conduct. In 1995 the FAO agreed its Code of Conduct
Code of Conduct
A code of conduct is a set of rules outlining the responsibilities of or proper practices for an individual, party or organization. Related concepts include ethical codes and honor codes....
for Responsible Fisheries to promote long-term sustainable management
Sustainable management
Sustainable management takes the concepts from sustainability and synthesizes them with the concepts of management. Sustainability has three branches: the environment, the needs of present and future generations, and the economy...
.
In 2001, the FAO adopted the International Plan of Action (IPOA) on IUU Fishing. The aim of this voluntary instrument is to prevent, deter and eliminate IUU fishing by providing all states with comprehensive, effective and transparent measures by which to act, including through appropriate regional fisheries management organisations established in accordance with international law.
The FAO Compliance Agreement, which entered into force in 2003, is designed to close a major loophole in international fisheries management, that of the circumvention of fisheries regulations by ‘re-flagging‘ vessels under the flags of states that are unable or unwilling to enforce such measures.
In 2009, the FAO brokered a treaty between 92 nations (The agreement on port state measures to prevent, deter and eliminate illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing) that would close ports to vessels suspected of illegal fishing. The treaty would require vessels request permission to dock and to inform the port details of its fishing operations. Permission to dock could be denied if unregulated fishing was occurring. The measure would help block illegally caught fish from entering the marketplace. Other measures in the treaty include inspections of equipment, paperwork, catches and ship's records. Though the treaty does not compel countries to apply these measures to ships under its own flag, they are free to include them under the agreement.
See also
- Environmental effects of fishingEnvironmental effects of fishingThe environmental impact of fishing can be divided into issues that involve the availability of fish to be caught, such as overfishing, sustainable fisheries, and fisheries management; and issues that involve the impact of fishing on other elements of the environment, such as by-catch.These...
- Game Wardens
- Geoff ReganGeoff ReganGeoffrey Paul Regan, PC, MP is a Canadian politician. He has the prenomial "the Honourable" and the postnomial "PC" for life by virtue of being made a privy councillor and a member of the Queen's Privy Council for Canada. Regan grew up in a strong political family...
- List of environmental issues
- OverfishingOverfishingOverfishing occurs when fishing activities reduce fish stocks below an acceptable level. This can occur in any body of water from a pond to the oceans....
- PoachingPoachingPoaching is the illegal taking of wild plants or animals contrary to local and international conservation and wildlife management laws. Violations of hunting laws and regulations are normally punishable by law and, collectively, such violations are known as poaching.It may be illegal and in...
- Seafood Choices AllianceSeafood Choices AllianceThe Seafood Choices Alliance is a program of the nonprofit ocean conservation organization, SeaWeb. It was established in 2001 to bring together the disparate elements and diverse approaches in a growing "seafood choices" movement in the United States and expanded into Europe in 2005...
- Vessel monitoring systemVessel monitoring systemVessel monitoring systems are used in commercial fishing to allow environmental and fisheries regulatory organizations to monitor, minimally, the position, time at a position, and course and speed of fishing vessels. They are a key part of monitoring control and surveillance programs at the...
External links
- Illegal Fishing Data and Statistics: Havocscope Black Market
- Report on the development Impact of the EU-IUU regulation on Commonwealth ACP Member Countries
- Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) 'Save the Sea' campaign to end Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing - films, reports, photos
- illegal fishing info website
- Marine Stewardship Council Website
- High Seas Task Force Website
- Closing The Net Website
- Greenpeace IUU Blacklist Website
- Review of Impacts of Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing on Developing Countries, FINAL REPORT, July 2005