Case examples of IUU fishing in the Asian

region – links to Port State Measures

Simon Funge-SmithFAO Regional Office Asia and the Pacific

“Asia-Pacific Fishery Commission Regional review of Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported fishing by foreign vessels”

• IUU is by definition unreported, typically hidden, not communicated

• It is almost impossible to measure level of IUU fishing directly

• Estimation methods

– Identify IUU hotspots and vessel activity through media reports - but little quantitative data

– Key respondents often have good information of specific hotspots• Size of vessel, gear, typical catch rates, typical number

of days of operation

– Economic validation - IUU fishing is driven by profit, so vessels must break even

There are IUU hotspots by foreign or foreign beneficially-owned vessels throughout the Asia region

Asia-Pacific Fishery Commission Regional review of Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported fishing by foreign vessels (2015)

Summary of results

• Hotspots found across Asia region– 33 identified

– almost every country in the region has some sort of IUU issues with foreign or foreign beneficially owned vessels.

• These IUU activities– Mainly target species which are not

managed under RFMO agreements (IOTC & WCPFC)

– not subject to any RFB management plans

– may not enter international seafood commodity value chains

– are landed and marketed within the region Foreign trawlers in port

Type of illegal activity identified

• Typically a mixture of several inter-related issues– Crossing boundaries– Lack of documents/authorization– Transhipping– Mis-declaration of landings

• This means that effectively combatting IUU will require a combination of actions.

The scale of this IUU significant

• The total tonnage and value of the estimated IUU catch

– 33 hotspots

– 2.06 to 2.51 million tonnes

– USD 3.65 – 5.24 billion

• Represents between 2.4 and 10.8 % of the total reported catch for the sub-regions

– Mostly around 9-10%

– Excluding the East China Sea/Yellow Sea

Crab traps

Trawler ready to leave

33 IUU hotspots by foreign & foreign beneficially owned vessels

5 major IUU Hotspots 82-85% of all IUU

• 82-85% of total volume (1.75 –2.07 million mt) • 75-81% of total value (USD 2 972 – 3 926 million)• High volume fisheries• Trawl fisheries or a mixture of trawl and purse

seine fisheries

7 second-level IUU hotspots 11-13% of IUU

• 11-13% of total volume (236 209 – 331 029 mt)• 14-20% of total value (USD 499 – 1 056 million)• trawl fisheries with some purse seining• Tuna gillnetting, tuna longlining

Remaining 21 IUU Hotspots ~4% volume

• 4% of the tonnage (75 500 – 109 283 tonnes) • 5% of the total value (USD 181 – 253 million)• ETP, tuna, small-scale fisheries

Main drivers

• Outdated Legal frameworks

• Ineffective vessel registries and related controls

• Uncertain maritime boundaries– Declining tolerance of transboundary fishing

• Limited MCS capacity– Weak vessel tracking and monitoring

• Official tolerance of IUU landings

• Economics– Institutionalized tolerance of IUU to maintain raw

material supply

• Corruption– Local ‘deals” for access

• Inadequate port and service infrastructure in countries providing access to fisheries Net repairs on

a purse seiner

Lessons learned– Using risk analysis helps to identify and prioritize hotspots– Impacts vary - economic, trade, biodiversity, small-scale fishers – All the hotspots had boundary issues– Fish landings can be identified to specific countries…

…sometimes specific ports– Typically exploit limited surveillance capacity– Also often involve local collusion or access arrangements– Labour issues strongly linked to some specific fisheries– Many other linked to safety factors

Transhipmentvessel

Future of fisheries management in Asia requires national action

• Most of the fisheries occur within EEZ– subject to national laws and regulations

– weak governance allows considerable flexibility for overfishing, IUU fishing

• Weak controls on fishing vessels – excluded from some shipping norms

– inaccurate registries allows dual flagging

– limited monitoring and large areas gives scope of unregulated fishing

– “local deals” for access, must be regulated and made more transparent

• Adjust fishery management framework focus on governance & sustainability

Small trawlers - Penang

Key strategies to resolve the IUU in almost every case

Fishing vessels in port during fuel price spike

• Active development/implementation of NPOAs: IUU & Capacity– identify required institutional and legal reforms– update national legislation– reform departmental mandates to actively combat IUU fishing– amend policy and develop political will

Use NPOA-IUU as a planning tool

• Development of NPOA-IUU a significant step– demonstrates commitment – gain political and institutional support

• NPOA-IUU is a process:• Identify

– IUU issues, the prevalence and scale of IUU, costs and impacts– weaknesses in legal and institutional frameworks, strengthened

• Establishes & clarifies– basis for inter-agency coordination– especially for Port Controls, MCS, vessel registration– the judicial process

• Develop actions– to address identified issues over short, medium and long terms– To put cooperation/coordination in place– Pilot or full scale

• NPOA-IUU is not a paper exercise, it is a strategy for reform of fishery management

Sorted catch loading for the processing factory

Improving national capacity to cooperate

• First - Recognize the problem!– Identify hotspots– Domestic IUU– Foreign-related IUU

• Risk assessment to determine where to place effort– Small volumes/low values – low priority– High volumes high value - high priority– High impacts - special attention (e.g. ETP)?– Threats to trade

• Use economic argument to build political will• Fishery Agency cannot do this alone!

– Vessel registers/tracking – marine transport– Port controls – harbour management/ authority– Linking customs and immigration

• How to start this cooperation?

Optimize effort & capacity

Improve Flag State controls & responsibilities

• Establish control mechanisms on vessels flying flag

• Ensure no vessels operates without an authorization

• Maintain accurate and up-to-date fishing vessel register

• Develop and maintain a record of fishing vessels

• Track vessels using VMS

Tuna reefer markings

Strengthen MCS/Port controls

• Control Ports

– remove the incentives(profitability)

– increase the deterrents (sanctions)

– makes it difficult for IUU fish to be imported or traded

• Target foreign vessels

– prohibits port access and servicing of IUU vessels and products

– strengthens monitoring and coordination between agencies

– enables more effective sanctions

IUU vessel “Kunlun”

Improve cooperation between countries

• Establish legal mechanism for transboundary landings

• Agreement to report foreign vessels landing fish

• Joint controls of dual flagging

• Standardization of vessel markings

• Harmonization of catch documents

• Consider vessel tracking/monitoring

• Target domestic vessels

Thank you

The publication

“Asia-Pacific Fishery Commission Regional review of Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported fishing by foreign vessels”

Will be available by the end of 2015