May 5, 2026 — The United States advanced its goals to combat harmful fishing practices at the North Pacific Fisheries Commission’s 10th annual meeting in Osaka, Japan, in April. The Commission is a regional fisheries management organization. It manages pelagic and deep-sea fisheries in the high seas of the North Pacific, other than those managed by other international organizations. The United States is one of nine Commission members.
The United States does not have fishing vessels active under NPFC but its outcomes align with broader U.S. objectives related to:
- Promoting sustainable fisheries management
- Bolstering maritime security on the high seas adjacent to U.S. waters
- Ensuring U.S. seafood imports derive from legal, well-managed fisheries
Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing
A top U.S. priority is combating illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. IUU fishing undermines sustainable fisheries management, U.S. seafood competitiveness, and consumer confidence in seafood supplies.
The Commission took several steps to strengthen and implement tools to combat IUU fishing at its annual meeting, including adopting a measure on minimum standards for port inspections. This measure lays out basic obligations for port states and other actors when foreign fishing vessels request entry into port. It will help prevent the landing and entry into commerce of IUU fish and fish products. It is aligned with the Agreement on Port State Measures and related information exchange systems. Adoption of the measure complements similar measures in other regional fisheries management organizations. It also strengthens other monitoring, control, and surveillance tools the Commission has in place to combat IUU fishing at sea, such as:
- High seas boardings and inspections
- Vessel monitoring systems
- Transshipment observer program
The Commission also adopted a U.S. proposal to amend the measure that establishes a list of vessels involved in IUU fishing and imposes consequences on those vessels. The existing measure had a potential gap in the timeframe under which vessels could be nominated for inclusion on the list. The U.S. proposal successfully closed that gap and strengthened other aspects of the measure. It launched a process to develop clearer procedures to share information with other regional fisheries management organizations and take comparable measures against vessels on other organizations’ IUU vessel lists.
Read the full article at NOAA Fisheries