Go fish! – But do so legally
Cambodian fishermen bring in a catch in December last year.
agreement to set minimum standards for countries to prevent IUU seafood products from entering ports.
Now fully enforceable, it provides a regulatory framework for countries to refuse entry of vessels suspected of participating or facilitating IUU fishing activities and allows for enforced inspection of vessels if entry is granted.
Once a fishing boat is identified as one operating in contravention of the PSMA, the information can be shared with the maritime and fishing authorities of other countries – making it that much more difficult for that particular boat and its captain to continue profiting from IUU fishing.
The effectiveness of this instrument in the region is clear, with vessels being seized and prosecuted by countries that have acceded to the PSMA.
Thailand and Indonesia are two such examples.
So far, 19 countries and territories in the Asia-Pacific region have acceded to the PSMA and several more are in the process of doing so.
The PSMA is complemented by other regional initiatives that are setting seafood traceability standards so that buyers of seafood from the AsiaPacific region can be guaranteed that the product does not come from IUU fishing practices.
Such guarantees are opening international markets for Asia and Pacific products.
However, while real and rapid progress is being made in Asia and the Pacific to reduce illegal fishing there is still much to be done to eliminate misreporting or non-reporting of catch.
The rapid advancement of access to telecommunications in the Asia-Pacific region has provided an infrastructure for the adoption of digital tools for reporting of catch.
The immediate challenge is to empower fishers to adopt this technology downstream.
Eyes in the sky
Upstream, the region now has seven “state of the art” fisheries monitoring and surveillance centres that utilise high-tech equipment to identify vessels suspected of engaging in IUU practices.
The establishment of national centres in Australia, Indonesia, Malaysia, New Zealand, Thailand and the US, in conjunction with the regional surveillance centre for the western Pacific in the Solomon Islands, has increased the capacity for cohesion and collaboration among Asia-Pacific neighbours to tackle IUU fishing.
Further developing efficient and effective monitoring and surveillance technologies, rewarding honest fishers (including small-scale fishers) for accurately reporting all catch (through enhanced market access) and building capacity of port states to detect and prosecute IUU fishers are clear steps for eliminating IUU fishing.
Accession by all Asia-Pacific countries to the PSMA will send a loud and clear message to those involved in, or considering, IUU fishing that we are on to them.
June 5 is International Day for the Fight against IUU Fishing, and it’s a timely reminder of the tasks at hand.
There has never been a better time for t he countries of t he Asia-Pacif ic region to expand t heir ef forts to combat illega l, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing – that time is now.
IUU fishing hits honest fishers, and communities dependent upon them, right in the pocket