Greenpeace today launched a first global database of blacklisted, illegal fishing vessels, in a bid to tackle the huge problem of illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing, a $9 billion rogue industry which is having a devastating effect on fish stocks and biodiversity in some of the most ecologically important areas of the world’s oceans.
The Greenpeace database
(http://oceans.greenpeace.org/blacklist), which was launched at the
meeting of the committee on Fisheries of the Food and Agriculture
Organisations (FAO) in Rome, aims to publicly identify vessels
which are involved in so-called 'pirate fishing', to expose the
lack of action by the authorities to prevent the illegal trade.
Today, Greenpeace also released a report (2) showing that the
attempts at voluntary measures to curb pirate fishing by
governments have had little effect on the levels of illegal fishing
in some of the poorest and most desperate areas of action in the
world, particularly the west coast of Africa.
"The fact that Greenpeace has to publish a global database of
blacklisted illegal fishing vessels demonstrates clearly just how
little concrete action states have taken to stop this pillage of
our oceans," Sari Tolvanen of Greenpeace International. "What's
needed now is an official body to take charge of the policing of
the worlds' oceans and make publicly available the information of
both illegitimate and unlicensed fishing vessels. Until this
happens, we have little hope of stopping the devastation which
pirate fishing brings."
The Greenpeace report shows that six years after the member
countries of the FAO approved an International Plan of Action to
curb illegal fishing, the problem is very far from being solved. It
includes evidence gathered last year when the Greenpeace ship
Esperanza, spent two months documenting the activities of foreign
fleets off the coast of Guinea Conakry (3). That investigation
discovered that almost half of the 92 fishing vessels encountered
in Guinea's waters were fishing illegally, or linked to illegal
fishing activities. It has been estimated that sub-Saharan Africa
loses around $1 billion a year due to the activities of such
illegal trawling fleets.
"The measures needed to stamp out pirate fishing are well known.
Action is required at all levels of the chain of custody, from the
net in the water to the fish on the shelves of supermarkets", said
Sebastian Losada, Greenpeace Oceans campaigner. "International
cooperation, binding laws on port control, as well as a global
register of fishing vessels and adequate sanctions are among the
tools that Governments need to put in place to act against the
pirate fleets that are literally stealing the food of some of the
poorest people in the world and destroying our marine
ecosystems".
Greenpeace campaigners attending the United Nations fisheries
meeting in Rome demanded that governments must translate the
existing voluntary frameworks and international initiatives into
hard law. The international environmental organisation also
demanded that the special requirements of developing countries in
fighting illegal fishing be taken into account.
Other contacts: Sebastian Losada, Greenpeace Spain Oceans Campaigner, +34 626998254Sari Tolvanen, Greenpeace International Oceans Campaigner, in Rome. +31655125480
Notes: (1) http://oceans.greenpeace.org/blacklist(2) Witnessing the plunder 2006. How illegal fish from West African waters finds its way to the EU ports and markets”, available at www.greenpeace.org....(3) The Esperanza documented pirate fishing in West Africa as part of the Defending Our Oceans expedition, a 15-month expedition, the biggest the organisation has ever undertaken, to show the threats to the oceans and outline solutions to the oceans environmental crises. http://blacklist.greenpeace.org/