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Greenpeace activists paint 'STOLEN FISH' on a pirate fishing vessel containing fish from Guinean waters.
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The challenge is for governments to develop strong anti-pirate fishing measures in national fisheries law and with regional fisheries management bodies.
To control pirate fishing governments must:
• Ratify and implement the Compliance Agreement and the United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement (UNFSA). Sign the International Plan of Action on Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported (IUU) Fishing and develop a national plan that implements all the recommendations in the international plan.
• Ban pirates from ports and reward licensed fishing vessels with exclusive access to ports and markets.
• Develop rigorous monitoring, control and surveillance measures. These should include an IUU vessel blacklist, a centralised vessel monitoring system, boarding and inspection that builds upon UNFSA, a ban on all transhipments at sea and a catch verification scheme.
• Take enforcement action against IUU fishers flying flags of convenience with no genuine link (they are therefore stateless vessels and have no legal defence under the Convention on the Law of the Sea).
The Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission is the body responsible for developing measures to combat pirate fishing in the Western and Central Pacific. Proposals for a ban on transhipments were put up at the December 2007 meeting but were rejected by the distant water fishing nations. This allows their vessels to hide their fish from monitoring and as a result, lets them catch above their quotas and avoid paying access fees.
Good news, however, was that the Commission placed the first vessels onto its new vessel blacklist for engaging in pirate fishing.
Greenpeace has a blacklist which is compiled from the range of existing official registries of IUU vessels and companies. Industrial fishing vessels and fishery support vessels, including motherships, refrigerated carriers and supply vessels, may be included on the database.
To control pirate fishing governments must:
• Ratify and implement the Compliance Agreement and the United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement (UNFSA). Sign the International Plan of Action on Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported (IUU) Fishing and develop a national plan that implements all the recommendations in the international plan.
• Ban pirates from ports and reward licensed fishing vessels with exclusive access to ports and markets.
• Develop rigorous monitoring, control and surveillance measures. These should include an IUU vessel blacklist, a centralised vessel monitoring system, boarding and inspection that builds upon UNFSA, a ban on all transhipments at sea and a catch verification scheme.
• Take enforcement action against IUU fishers flying flags of convenience with no genuine link (they are therefore stateless vessels and have no legal defence under the Convention on the Law of the Sea).
The Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission is the body responsible for developing measures to combat pirate fishing in the Western and Central Pacific. Proposals for a ban on transhipments were put up at the December 2007 meeting but were rejected by the distant water fishing nations. This allows their vessels to hide their fish from monitoring and as a result, lets them catch above their quotas and avoid paying access fees.
Good news, however, was that the Commission placed the first vessels onto its new vessel blacklist for engaging in pirate fishing.
Greenpeace has a blacklist which is compiled from the range of existing official registries of IUU vessels and companies. Industrial fishing vessels and fishery support vessels, including motherships, refrigerated carriers and supply vessels, may be included on the database.
Check out our database of pirate fishing vessels on the Greenpeace International website
