The Issue
Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU)
fishing can take place in all capture fisheries,
whether within national jurisdiction or on the high
seas. Efforts to conserve and manage fish stocks
are undermined by IUU fishing and can lead to the
collapse of a fishery or can seriously impair
efforts to rebuild fish stocks that have already
been depleted. This may lead to the loss of both
short and long-term social and economic
opportunities and have a negative effect on food
security. Left unchecked, IUU fishing can lead to
the complete negation of benefits generated through
the effective management of a fishery.
National and regional fisheries management
organizations often fail to curb IUU fishing,
because of a lack of political will or a lack the
capacity and resources to implement adequate
regulatory measures, including those available, or
potentially available, through existing
international instruments.
The unreported nature of this fishing makes it
particularly difficult to quantify the scale of the
problem. The FAO has been informed that for some
important fisheries, about 30% of the total catch
is taken in IUU fishing activities. In general, IUU
fishing is a significant global problem which has
prompted FAO member states, through its Committee
on Fisheries, to agree to an international plan of
action to prevent, deter and eliminate it.
Possible solutions
A wide range of measures is available for
national fisheries authorities to use which apply
to national jurisdictions and to fisheries within
international waters.
States should ensure that their fisheries
legislation addresses all aspects of IUU fishing,
including the admissibility of evidence that it is
now possible to produce due to advances in
information technology. Arrangements for the
monitoring, control and surveillance (MCS)
of fishing activity should be appropriate for the
biological, physical, geographic, social and
economic characteristics of the fisheries
concerned. Sanctions for IUU fishing need to be
sufficiently severe to effectively prevent, deter
and eliminate IUU fishing. Where appropriate,
states should cooperate to meet this objective and
should encourage their respective MCS personal to
cooperate in the investigating and enforcing
measures against IUU fishing.
Effective exercise by states of their
responsibilities in regulating vessels flying their
flag would significantly contribute to effective
action to deal with IUU fishing. No vessel should
be allowed to fish on the high seas or within
national jurisdiction unless it is authorised to do
so.
Greater cooperation between states, through
giving full effect to relevant rules of
international law, could greatly enhance efforts to
counter IUU fishing. To this end States should
ratify or accede to the 1982 UN Convention, the
1995 UN Fish Stocks Agreement and the 1993 FAO
Compliance Agreement where they have not yet done
so and ensure their full and effective
implementation. In addition, States should
implement the Code of Conduct for Responsible
Fisheries and its associated International Plans of
Action.
Trade-related measures to reduce or eliminate
trade in fish and fish products derived from IUU
fishing are potentially an effective measure that
could be taken to ensure compliance.
Recent Action
States have taken both unilateral and
cooperative action to deal with the problem of IUU
fishing ever since the need was perceived to
conserve stocks and enforce rights. Recent
multilateral action offers an opportunity to
further advance the effectiveness of efforts to
stop IUU fishing.
The FAO was mandated by the 1999 Session of it's
Committee on Fisheries and by the FAO Ministerial
Meeting on Fisheries in March 1999, to develop,
within the framework of the Code of Conduct for
Responsible Fisheries, a voluntary international
plan of action to combat IUU fishing. To this end,
an 'Expert Consultation on IUU Fishing' took
place in Sydney, Australia in May 2000 followed by
technical consultation on the subject at the FAO
Headquarters in Rome in October 2000.
Outlook
IUU fishing has become a major topic of the
fisheries governance debate. Ways of tackling the
problem are being actively pursued by the FAO and
by a number of regional fisheries management
organisations. The importance of effectively
tackling the problem is now widely recognised.
Effectively preventing, deterring and
eliminating IUU fishing in international waters
requires cooperation among states. Such cooperation
is also often required if action within waters
under national jurisdiction is to be effective, due
to the mobility of fishing vessels. The prospects
of significantly reducing the incidence of IUU
fishing will depend to a large measure on the
extent to which states succeed in cooperating to
put a stop to IUU fishing, in addition to
implementing effective MCS measures within their
own jurisdictions.
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