(seafood.com) As the world's largest
In an own-initiative report drafted by Isabella Lavin (Greens-EFA, Sweden) and adopted on 11 October, the committee calls on the EU to promote international actions - such as inspections at sea and the closing of markets to products from illegal fishing - with a view to maintaining fish stocks at a sustainable level, to negotiate international legal instruments and to defend the principle of penalties for negligent states. The report, adopted unanimously, will be put to the vote in plenary at the 14-17 November session in Strasbourg.
Illegal fishing accounts for around 15% of global catches--between 11 and 26 million tonnes per year--making sustainable management of marine resources impossible. Apart from the threat to the viability of fish stocks and food security, which affects both consumers and fishing communities, illegal fishing constitutes a source of unfair competition for the operators who play by the rules, explains the report. MEPs thus note that "the EU has to do more to promote effective cooperation to combat illegal fisheries".
Technological tools exist to control and prevent illegal fishing but it is the political commitment that is lacking, state MEPs, who urge the European Commission and member states to place this issue on the international agenda, in the WTO for example. They call for sanctions to be imposed on states that do not respect their international obligations, for example by failing to ensure that vessels that fly their flag comply with rules. MEPs also state that aid under the EU's generalized system of preferences should only be allocated if the candidate country respects FAO and UN rules designed to combat IUU fishing, and that the Commission and member states should increase financial and technical aid for surveillance programmes in the waters of developing countries.
Since two thirds of oceans and seas are beyond national jurisdictions, new international measures are needed, states the report, which suggests: compulsory registration of fishing vessels of more than ten GT (gross registered tonne), a global catch certification programme, information exchange on vessel activity at international level, supervision of imports and an agreement on shutting markets to illegally caught products. To be effective, such measures must be backed by the leading fishery products markets: MEPs urge the EU to consult large marketing states, such as the United States, Japan and China, in order to define, probably under WTO auspices, international legal instruments to track, sanction and put an end to trade in products from IUU fishing.
MEPs also call for the EU to establish a register of authorised fishing vessels and to draw up a black list of vessels involved in illegal fishing. They also recommend the reinforcement of inspections at sea, the development of catch documentation schemes, a ban on transhipment, the mandatory use of satellite-based vessel monitoring systems and reinforcement of regional fisheries management organisations, with a view to covering all open seas fisheries.