Great loss to IUU fishing

FIJI hopes to redirect money lost to illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing to its domestic fishing industry.

This was highlighted by Ministry of Fisheries permanent secretary Pene Baleinabuli, during the signing of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) port state measures agreement last month.

He said according to a Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency Report in 2016 which focused specifically on IUU fishing in 14 countries in the Pacific region, Pacific Island countries were losing about more than $US600 million annually from IUU fishing.

“It is a lot of money, in Fijian dollars that is more than $F1.2 billion annually,” he said.

“When you share that amongst the 14 Pacific Island countries from their own EEZ we are looking at a couple of hundred million dollars per country which is a lot of money being lost to IUU.

“That is the kind of money we want to redirect to Fiji. The money coming from illegally caught fish should be caught by our domestic fishing industry.”

In trying to combat IUU fishing in Fiji, FAO with the Fiji government had implemented the electronic monitoring system which is funded by FAO.

“FAO in the past couple of years and recently had assisted Fiji with the implementation of EMS FAO.

“It has enabled Fiji to work with our Fiji fishing industry to put cameras on about 50 fishing vessels.

“It helps capture what is happening out at sea and when those vessels come back to port; the ministry gets a hold of those recording and conducts its analysis.

“It is part of the overall effort to eradicate or to minimise IUU fishing.”

EMS is an ongoing program for Fiji.

The ministry has also had talks with the Commander of the Fiji Navy about IUU fishing in Fiji waters.

“We have had a discussion with the commander as we all know illegal fishing requires the policing of our waters.

“Fiji has 1.3 million square kilometres of EEZ so it’s important for us to build our capacity to be able to manage our EEZ and police it.”

He said the discussion with the Fiji Navy was on the need to collectively collaborate, to share information and to be able to invest in technology and the capacity and capability of the Fiji Navy so Fiji coul detect IUU fishing in our waters.

He said Fiji is also focused on sustainable management of its resources to help with social and economic growth.