Saving Seafood

US officials working to address IUU fishing in Latin America

January 21, 2021 — The U.S. announced late last week several moves officials hope will curb illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing in the Caribbean and Latin America.

On Friday, 15 January, the U.S. Department of Labor issued a news release stating it plans to make available up to USD 8 million (EUR 6.6 million) in grant funding through its Bureau of International Labor Affairs. The bureau’s mission is to push for a fair playing field for workers in the U.S. and across the world by fighting child and illegal labor practices and bolstering labor standards worldwide.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

NOAA Joins USAID in Effort to Combat IUU Fishing Overseas

January 13, 2021 — The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is joining the U.S. government’s effort to fight illegal fishing in far-flung waters. NOAA has entered into an agreement with the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU fishing) across borders and to promote sustainable fisheries abroad.

The two agencies plan to expand on their existing programs, strategies and investments in order to support developing countries’ efforts to strengthen their own enforcement capacity; promote private sector and government innovations to combat IUU fishing; and heighten both the positive incentives for compliance with fisheries rules and the negative consequences for violations.

The agreement builds on progress made under the Maritime Security and Fisheries Enforcement (SAFE) Act of 2019, which requires multiple agencies to form a joint working group on maritime security and counter-IUU fishing measures. Over the past year, NOAA has been working with the U.S. Coast Guard and the Department of State under this framework.

Read the full story at The Maritime Executive

How can Southeast Asia benefit from the new U.S. policy on illegal fishing?

January 11, 2021 — In September 2020, the United States Coast Guard (USCG) released a new USCG IUUF Strategic Outlook. The USCG created such a comprehensive position and strategy in reiterating the U.S.’s strong commitment to the war against illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, known as IUUF, all over the world. The document recognizes IUUF as the biggest threat to maritime security, even more dangerous than piracy.

The document shows that IUUF has a huge impact not only on fisheries in the U.S. but also on fisheries stocks all over the world. For instance, it shows that 93% of the world’s major marine fish stocks are classified as fully exploited, overexploited, or significantly depleted, and that it also results in tens of billions of dollars of lost revenue for legal fishers every year.

Indeed, IUUF has been a huge threat to all countries all over the world. In Southeast Asia particularly, IUUF has been a major challenge. In Indonesia alone, there are several estimates for how Indonesia suffers from IUUF. It is estimated that Indonesia suffers $3 billion in losses annually from IUUF. Mas Achmad Santosa, CEO of the Indonesian Ocean Justice Initiative (IOJI), an NGO, argues that the huge prevalence of IUUF in Indonesia is because of the economic benefit from IUUF, and weak governance and law enforcement.

During Susi Pudjiastuti’s tenure as Indonesia’s minister of maritime affairs and fisheries, Indonesia took serious measures in combating IUUF. The policy of sinking foreign fishing vessels that conduct IUUF in Indonesian waters was claimed to be effective in reducing IUUF practices in Indonesia. Susi, who left office in 2019, also actively championed globally at many international conferences for IUUF to be recognized as a form of transnational organized crime.

Read the full story at Mongabay News

Something’s fishy: Recent study discusses harmful consequences of mislabeled seafood

January 8, 2021 — In 2017, Carlos Rafael was sentenced to nearly four years in prison, fined $3 million, and prohibited from ever returning to his job, all because of one thing: fish. Specifically, 800,000 pounds of mislabeled fish.

The fishing magnate, perhaps better known as the “Codfather,” had been caught illegally overfishing American plaice and selling it as haddock in order to avoid paying for larger quotas. Estimated to have caught 10% of the entire annual catch limit, Rafael had done significant damage to the plaice population by the time he was arrested.

Illegal practices like Rafael’s that threaten to endanger or overexploit marine life aren’t entirely uncommon.

As a recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) points out, mislabelling doesn’t only mean the wrong species’ name appearing on the wrapper. Information about the seafood’s geographical origin and whether or not it was farmed or wild can also be misrepresented, undermining consumers’ ability to buy from well-managed and sustainable fisheries.

Read the full story at The Daily

Four South American countries prepare to challenge Chinese fishing abuses at COMM9

January 5, 2020 — A fleet of more than 300 mostly Chinese-flagged fishing ships that caused consternation among the governments of Ecuador and Peru this summer when it was spotted fishing around their respective exclusive economic zones, has continued to fish in the Pacific Ocean around South America, and affected countries are coordinating actions to stop it.

The fleet was spotted by Ecuadorian maritime officials in mid-July as it arrived outside of the Galápagos Marine Reserve in international waters near Ecuador’s exclusive economic zone. The fleet was subsequently accused of shutting off its GPS trackers to enable it to fish illegally in protected waters without being detected.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

US CBP takes action against Taiwanese trawler, accusing it of using forced labor

January 4, 2021 — U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) has issued a withhold release order against a Taiwanese tuna trawler, saying it has received credible information that the vessel was involved in the use of forced labor.

The agency, a division of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, on 31 December ordered its personnel at all U.S. ports of entry to detain tuna and other seafood harvested by the Lien Yi Hsing No. 12, a Taiwanese-flagged and -owned distant-water fishing vessel. The agency said its investigation concluded the Lie Yi Hsing 12’s operators had used deceptive hiring practices, withholding of wages, and debt bondage in staffing the vessel. In a press release, the CBP said it will provide the owner of the vessels the opportunity to demonstrate its merchandise was not produced with forced labor, or to export any of their shipments that have been detained to a third country.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Slavery and overfishing on the high seas can’t hide from these researchers

December 22, 2020 — A tracking system designed to help ships avoid crashing into each other has become an important tool for spotting bad behavior on the high seas. Researchers can now put a spotlight on corporations that dominate fishing in unregulated international waters where it’s easier to get away with overfishing. And it’s giving us a better idea of how widespread slave labor could be on fishing vessels.

Two recently published papers use this technology, the maritime Automatic Identification System (AIS), to make high-seas fishing a little less mysterious. The first study, published in the journal One Earth on December 18th, traces the origins of thousands of high-seas fishing vessels back to big-time corporations that keep store shelves stocked with seafood. Other researchers use AIS to reveal telltale markers of forced labor on fishing boats, which were published today in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). That all makes it easier to make companies answer for any abuses they commit at sea.

The technology, the maritime Automatic Identification System (AIS), has actually been around for about two decades. Basically, vessels carry around a box that sends out radio signals that anyone else can pick up on. Those radio signals share information about the ship, an identifying number, and other things like its size, course, and speed. That’s supposed to help vessels spot each other so they don’t get in each other’s way.

Read the full story at The Verge

Pacific Island Nations Wary of Chinese Fishing Fleets

December 21, 2020 — Long a topic discussed in connection with the South China Sea, illegal Chinese fishing vessels are of increasing concern for Pacific Island nations.

As recently as early this week, the archipelago nation of Palau, east of the Philippines and north of New Guinea, announced that it had intercepted and detained a Chinese fishing vessel and six smaller boats in its territorial waters after it was confirmed the vessel had entered unlawfully and was illegally fishing sea cucumber.

The fishing vessel was apprehended in Helen Reef, Palau’s most southernmost region, by a Guardian-class patrol boat that Australia had delivered to Palau in September.

“They did have sea cucumber on there… it’s estimated about 500 pounds (225 kilograms),” Victor Remengesau, director of Palau’s division of marine law and enforcement, told reporters. “It’s unlawful entry. We may care about COVID and the spread of COVID, but we can’t just let people do whatever they want, and disguise [illegal activity].”

Read the full story at The Diplomat

Big Brother Is Watching: Satellites Used to Survey Fishing in High Seas

December 21, 2020 — New research revealed Friday has shed new light on the companies around the world that carry out fishing operations in Earth’s most unregulated waters, as satellite data revealed their activities amid concerns of violations of labor and environmental laws and overfishing.

To help address these concerns, researchers published a study in the journal One Earth that brings to light a number of international companies that operate on the high seas, an effort that researchers say provides a new resource with which to gauge what exactly is happening in such unmonitored environments.

Jennifer Jacquet, associate professor at NYU’s Department of Environmental Studies and lead author of the study, said that the research is the first of its kind to promote this much-needed transparency in these critical areas.

“There is a lot of concern about companies that operate on the high seas, simply because there they are beyond the reach of any nation’s laws and regulations,” Jacquet said in a statement. “By connecting those boats with specific companies, this study takes a first step in enhancing transparency — we now know a lot more about who is profiting from fish catches in the global commons.”

Despite the strict control that numerous nations exercise over much of the world’s seas and oceans, there are nonetheless great stretches of waters around the globe that remain ownerless. These waters, commonly referred to as high seas or international waters, are in fact so vast that they make up nearly two-thirds of Earth’s oceans and have become notorious throughout the years for their lack of oversight and regulations.

Read the full story at Courthouse News Service

PETTER JOHANNESSEN: The blue whiting and herring fisheries didn’t have to lose their MSC certification. Here’s what should happen next.

December 15, 2020 — The Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) announced in early December that it would suspend its certification of Atlanto-Scandic herring and blue whiting fisheries as of Dec. 30, affecting eight certificates across European fisheries. This follows the suspension of the MSC certificate on mackerel fisheries in the Northeast Atlantic in 2019.

This had been expected for quite some time and the action taken by all involved stakeholders, starting with the MSC certificate holders (i.e. the fishing industry), including other industry representatives, during the last years, was sadly not enough.

What does it mean, really?

Let us be clear: the MSC suspension does not reflect an issue related to illegal, unreported or unregulated (IUU) fishing at an individual fishery level. No one has overfished their allocated quota.

Read the full opinion piece at IntraFish