A short presentation on some the issues surrounding illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing in Asia

1. State of world fisheries and international
fight against IUU fishing
Simon Funge-Smith
Senior Fishery Officer, FAO Regional Office for Asia and the Pacific

2. State of World Fisheries
For 20 years, global marine
capture fisheries have not
increased
78-83 million tonnes

3. Foreign fishing is no longer welcome in most
Exclusive Economic Zones
• Richest fishing areas lie within EEZ
• Countries have different capacity to control EEZ
resources

4. What is IUU fishing?
• Illegal
– Any fishing activity that undermines
(RFMO or national) fishery
management measures
• Unregulated
– Fishing vessels that are not controlled
by the flag state
• Unreported
– Assumes a reporting system is in place
– National Asian fishing limited
logbooks, catch documents
– Almost all artisanal catches not landed
in a port or landing centre are
unreported/unrecorded
• This presentation focusses mainly
on the “illegal” and
“unregulated” issues

5. Over-capacity is a major
driver for IUU fishing
• Large fishing fleets have developed
• Resources are fished to the limit or
have declined
• Over-capacity in processing sector
drives demand for raw material
• Access arrangements and reflagging
moves capacity around the region
• Limited controls by coastal states
• Beneficial owners profit from IUU
• Linkages
– labour and rights abuses
– vessel safety
– money laundering and trans-national
crime

6. IUU fishing can be deliberate or
opportunistic
• Taking a risk
– balancing likelihood of income against the
likelihood of penalty or capture
• Economic opportunity
– Fishers will do if they think they can get
away with it
• Most coastal fisheries have limited
MCS
– Risk of capture/fines are relatively low
– Few court cases

7. Typical IUU activities
• Unauthorized fishing
– Fishing in neighbouring country
waters, high seas
– Fishing without a license
• False documentation/markings
– Fishing with falsified license
– False/duplicate vessel registration
– False vessel markings
• Illegal transhipment or landings
– Landing of fish in an area other than
the authorized port of landing
– Non-reporting, misreporting, under-
reporting of catch

8. Typical IUU activities (2)
• Non compliance with technical
management measures
– Fishing in a restricted zone(s), seasons
– Trawling in nearshore artisanal zone
– Fishing in protected areas or closed
season
• Unauthorized gears & methods
– Small mesh sizes, lights, unlicensed
gear
– Use of destructive methods (cyanide,
blast-fishing)
• Catching of prohibited/protected
species
– CITES species, Sea turtles, Shark
finning, grouper, live reef fish, coral
etc.

9. How much fish is this and what is
the cost?
• Estimated global cost of IUU (2009)
– USD 10 - 23 billion per year
• Asia-Pacific Fishery Commission
(APFIC)
– Estimate of illegal fish catch by foreign
vessels in Asia
– USD 3.7 - 5.2 billion per year
– 2.1 – 2.5 million tonnes
• Other estimates Asia and Pacific
(2009)
– 3.4 – 8.1 million tonnes
– 8 -16% of the total reported catch
– USD 5.8 billion per year

10. What tools do we have to combat IUU fishing?

11. FAO Port State Measures
Agreement (2009)
• International agreement to
combat IUU fishing
– Remove the incentives(profitability)
– increase the deterrents (sanctions)
– Makes it difficult for IUU fish to be
imported or traded
• Principally targets foreign
vessels
– Prohibits port access and servicing
of IUU vessels and products
– Strengthens monitoring and
coordination between agencies
– Enables more effective sanctions

12. National Plan of Action-IUU
• National plan under the FAO
International Plan of Action IUU
• Identifies required institutional and
legal reforms
– Update national legislation
– Reform departmental mandates to actively
combat IUU fishing
– Improve inter-department cooperation to
control fishing vessels
• Strengthen Flag State responsibilities
– Strengthen national vessel register &
licensing
– Establish Vessel Monitoring Systems (VMS)
• Strengthen controls
– Port inspections
– Catch documentation
– Development of effective monitoring control
and surveillance

13. Flag State controls &
responsibilities
• Ensure no vessels operates without an
authorization
• Maintain accurate and up-to-date
fishing vessel register
• Establish control mechanisms on
vessels flying flag
• Engaging in, or supporting, IUU fishing
• including transport and support vessels
• VMS?
• Develop and maintain a record of
fishing vessels

14. Regulating transhipment at sea
• Transhipment outside the territorial sea should
be regulated to prevent laundering of catches
• Countries should monitor transhipments
• Establish measures such as:
– vessel registers
– mandatory notification of intention to tranship
– application of VMS

15. Market Measures
• Closely related to the implementation of Port State
Measures
– Prevent IUU fish from accessing markets
– Provide assurances to markets
• Examples
– EU Regulation 1005/2008 on catch certification
– USA Presidential Task Force on SeaFood Fraud
– Catch documentation and traceability schemes

16. Coordination is key
• Fisheries, Maritime Transport, Navy, Customs & Police
– Harmonize port controls & inspections
– Coordinate on vessel registration/flagging
– Prosecutions for IUU
• International and Regional Cooperation with other countries’
– Communicate information on registers & flags
– Share IUU information

17. Institutional reform and
capacity building takes time
• The necessary reforms to develop a
modern fishery management system
takes time
– Staff need to be re-tasked and trained
– Departments needs to take on new roles
and responsibilities
– Legal reforms need to be put in place
• May be resistance
– from fishing sector and processors anxious
about profits and losses
• Needs medium & long term
perspective
– clear goals, consistent policy