An international treaty geared toward preventing fish caught through illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) activities from reaching global markets is set to enter into force next month following ratification by 29 countries and the European Union.
The Port State Measures Agreement to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing (PSMA), as it is officially known, will be the world’s first-ever binding multilateral effort directly targeting the issue.
IUU fishing is responsible for annual catches of up to 26 million tonnes, with a landed value estimated at US$23 billion, according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) through which the new treaty was negotiated.
This illegal activity is charged with undermining efforts to manage fisheries sustainably, while also threatening livelihoods and augmenting food insecurity.
In recognition of these challenges, the PSMA was approved by FAO members in November 2009, outlining specific, internationally agreed standards for ports to apply to foreign vessels in order to detect illegal fishing activities and prevent entry into supply chains. The PSMA builds on and extends the UN agency’s 2001 voluntary International Plan of Action to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate IUU Fishing.
“This is the dawn of a new era in the effort to combat illegal fishing. By denying unscrupulous fishers safe haven and access to markets, the PSMA will drive the seafood industry toward greater sustainability and have significant ripple effects throughout the entire fisheries supply chain,” said FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva in a press release last week.
“Let no port state be known and targeted by IUU fishing operators as a shelter for non-compliance,” he added, urging more countries to ratify the treaty.
The PSMA is also expected to help contribute to a call in the UN’s new 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development to end IUU fishing by 2020, as part of its ocean conservation Sustainable Development Goal (SDG). (See Bridges Weekly, 1 October 2015)
The parties that have ratified the agreement include Australia, Barbados, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominica, the 28-nation EU as one, Gabon, Guinea Bissau, Guyana, Iceland, Mauritius, Mozambique, Myanmar, New Zealand, Norway, Oman, Palau, the Republic of Korea, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Seychelles, Somalia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Thailand, Tonga, the US, Uruguay, and Vanuatu.
These parties account for more than 62 percent of worldwide fish imports and 49 percent of fish exports, which were US$133 billion and US$139 billion respectively, in 2013. Some studies have suggested that between 20 percent and 32 percent of the fish imported into the US may be from illegal and unreported fishing, while around nine percent of imports into the EU may be from illegal fishing.
For the developing countries involved in the PSMA, Article 21 of the accord requires that other parties provide support either directly or through the relevant UN and international agencies for improving these nations’ legal capacity and giving the necessary technical assistance for putting national and international port state measures in place.
This includes the establishment of funding mechanisms to support developing country implementation, among other provisions.
Under the PSMA, the signatories will need to ensure that their ports comply with the standards set out in the accord. All foreign fishing vessels wishing to enter port will need to request permission ahead of time and may be subject to inspection. This will include reviews of ship papers, surveys of fishing gear, catch examination, and checks on ship log books. Vessels implicated in IUU activity will be detained and sanctioned, with the country whose flag the vessel is flying required to take certain actions. Ports will also have the discretion to deny certain services such as re-fuelling to vessels suspected of illegal marine activity.
The PSMA should facilitate information sharing on black market fishing activities, thereby making it more difficult for offenders to slip through and reducing the economic incentives for participating in such activities.
By mandating that captains provide advance notice of their arrival in port and by empowering port officials to turn away suspect catch, the treaty could keep many tonnes of illegally caught seafood from entering national or international markets each year, said fisheries expert Tony Long on behalf of The Pew Charitable Trusts, a non-profit group.
Long added, however, that it would be critical to expand coverage with further ratifications and for countries to incorporate PSMA requirements into domestic legislation.
International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development