Pirate fishing: Global crackdown begins today
1 January 2010
WWF welcomes new rules to stamp out illegal fishing activity • Good news for wildlife, consumers and legitimate fishing industry
New rules to crackdown on pirate fishing activities around the world, and which enter into force today (1 January 2010), have been welcomed by environmental group WWF. [1] If implemented properly, WWF believes that the new regulations will help protect the world's oceans by speeding-up the demise of illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing - a global trade estimated to be worth between $10bn and $23.5bn per year. [2]
Under the new EU Regulation, from today, all fish imports into the EU will be banned unless the importing company can show the fish comes from non-IUU sources through robust traceability systems. Furthermore, fisheries in countries with IUU fishing problem will face restrictions and be entered on a blacklist.
The new regulations mark a major success for WWF and others who have been working globally for many years to eliminate illegal fishing activities. [3]
WWF Scotland Director, Dr Richard Dixon, said:
"Pirate fishing is a serious global problem and is having a devastating impact on the marine environment. Often a professionally organised criminal activity, illegal fishing is a major contributor to the depletion of global fish stocks and undermines action designed to help stocks recover and protect other marine wildlife. Illegal fishing also represents a major loss of revenue, particularly to some of the poorest countries in the world where dependency on fisheries for food and livelihoods is high.
"Thanks to this crackdown, consumers can have greater confidence they are not unwittingly supporting illegal fishing and the destruction of the world's oceans. As the largest market for fish in the world it is right that Europe takes a lead in this area.
"These new rules should also lead to greater protection for much more than just fish, since many non-target animals such as dolphins, turtles and sea birds are also caught and killed by illegal fishing operations."
ILLEGAL FISHING - SOME FACTS AND FIGURES
• The total value of current IUU fishing losses worldwide is estimated to be between $10bn and $23.5bn annually - representing between 11 and 26 million tonnes.
• IUU fishing practices amount to approximately 10 billion Euros a year worldwide - making IUU fishing the second largest producer of fishery products in the world.
• Species at risk from illegal fishing include: bluefin tuna (East Atlantic and Mediterranean), bigeye tuna (Pacific) the Patagonian toothfish/Chilean sea bass (Southern Ocean), Atlantic cod and Alaskan pollack (Arctic) and abalone (South Africa).
• According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) illegal fishing can represent up to 30 per cent of total catches in certain major fisheries.
• Hundreds of thousands of dolphins and porpoises die from entanglement in illegal fishing nets each year. Hundreds of thousands more turtles, sharks and seabirds are caught on illegal longlines set for tuna and other fish.
• The EC is the largest importer of fishery products in the world. (In 2007, the EC imported nearly 16 billion Euros of fisheries products. Imports derived from IUU catches have been conservatively estimated at 1.1 billion Euros in 2005.)
• Thanks to action taken of WWF the level of IUU fishing of Barents cod in the Barents Sea is estimated to have dropped by 50 per cent since 2005. (One factor behind this success was strong pressure from the UK’s whitefish buying sector, which pushed the European Fish Producers Association to develop a voluntary protocol to exclude IUU-caught Barents cod from the supply chain.)
• More than 75% of the world's fisheries are already fully exploited or overfished, and as many as 90% of all the ocean’s large fish have been fished out. Illegal fishing undermines efforts designed to help stocks recover.
Sources: EC, DEFRA, FAO, WWF
NOTES TO EDITORS:
[1] The EU's Regulation to prevent, deter and eliminate IUU fishing comes into effect on 1 January 2010.
Background: http://ec.europa.eu/fisheries/cfp/external_relations/illegal_fishing_en.htm
See also: http://www.illegal-fishing.info
Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing includes:
• fishing in contravention of the laws and regulations of a country or an international agreement
• misreporting catches to the relevant authority
• fishing in a way that undermines management efforts to conserve marine species and ecosystems
[2] Estimating the Worldwide Extent of Illegal Fishing, David J. Agnew et al. (Division of Biology, Imperial College London) January 2009. The study found:
"Illegal and unreported fishing contributes to overexploitation of fish stocks and is a hindrance to the recovery of fish populations and ecosystems. This study is the first to undertake a world-wide analysis of illegal and unreported fishing. Reviewing the situation in 54 countries and on the high seas, we estimate that lower and upper estimates of the total value of current illegal and unreported fishing losses worldwide are between $10 bn and $23.5 bn annually, representing between 11 and 26 million tonnes."
See: http://www.illegal-fishing.info/uploads/PLoSjournal.pone.0004570Agnew.pdf
[3] WWF works at many levels to curb illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
Examples include:
• Highlighting the need to reform the flags of convenience (FoC) system;
• Promoting the use of black lists for IUU vessels;
• Promoting the need for increased cooperation and control measures by port states and flag states;
• Implementing the recommendations of the OECD High Seas Task Force;
• Working with legitimate and responsible fishing companies; and
• Tightening trade controls
Details on each example can be found here:
http://www.panda.org/what_we_do/footprint/smart_fishing/iuu_fishing/
WWF is a member of The High Seas Task Force - established in 2003 by a group of fisheries ministers and international NGOs - to develop an action plan to combat IUU fishing. See: http://www.high-seas.org
CASE STUDY: The case of the Patagonian toothfish
If you've ever eaten Chilean sea bass or mero, there's a 20% chance that what was on your plate was caught and traded illegally.
Marketed under many names, Patagonian toothfish (Dissostichus eleginoides) is an extremely tasty species that fetches a high price in restaurants around the world.
The toothfish lives at great depths (2,500-3,000m) in the Southern Ocean, where it can grow to over 2m in length and live for more than 50 years. Like many deep-sea species, it is extremely slow growing and does not reach sexual maturity until it is more than six years old.
Because of the relatively long time it takes toothfish to mature, heavy fishing will mean that many toothfish will be caught before they have a chance to reproduce. This means that no new adults can replace those lost from fishing, and the ability of populations to replenish themselves is quickly lost.
The high price paid for the fish and the difficulty of patrolling the vast and treacherous Southern Ocean means that a huge amount of illegal fishing continues. This pirate fishing accounts for at least half the Patagonian toothfish in the market, and is the single biggest threat to the species. The problem is widespread, with illegal and unregulated longliners operating from some 11 countries. These longliners also catch and kill devastating numbers of seabirds, many of which are critically endangered.
