Saving Seafood

EU IUU Coalition warns bloc is leaving its borders wide open to illegal seafood imports

November 24, 2025 — The European Union is failing to keep illicit seafood products from entering its borders, despite having some of the strongest illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing restrictions on paper, according to the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF).

The NGO – along with Oceana, The Pew Charitable Trusts, The Nature Conservancy, and WWF EU, all of which comprise the E.U.’s IUU Fishing Coalition – has warned in a new report – “Beyond CATCH: Why E.U. import controls still fail to keep illegal seafood out of the market” – that this flow of IUU products into the bloc is creating “dangerous loopholes” that threaten consumer trust, fair competition, and global efforts to combat fisheries crime.

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Senate pushes forward FISH Act to combat illegal global fishing

October 20, 2025 — U.S. senators voted to attach legislation designed to combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing to the Senate’s annual military spending legislation just before it passed.

If passed, the Fighting Foreign Illegal Seafood Harvest (FISH) Act would require the U.S. government to establish a blacklist of vessels involved in IUU activities. Vessels on the list would be banned from U.S. waters. The legislation would also require the U.S. Coast Guard to increase at-sea inspections to combat IUU fishing. The bill also requires reports to be submitted on how new technologies can help combat IUU fishing and on how Russian and Chinese fishing affects the U.S. market.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

US Senate passes military funding bill with FISH Act attached

October 13, 2025 — U.S. senators voted to attach legislation designed to combat illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing to the Senate’s annual military spending legislation just before it passed.

If passed, the Fighting Foreign Illegal Seafood Harvest (FISH) Act would require the U.S. government to establish a blacklist of vessels involved in IUU activities. Vessels on the list would be banned from U.S. waters. The legislation would also require the U.S. Coast Guard to increase at-sea inspections to combat IUU fishing. The bill also requires reports to be submitted on how new technologies can help combat IUU fishing and on how Russian and Chinese fishing affects the U.S. market.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource

US senators demand ban on Chinese seafood over IUU fishing, forced labor

August 27, 2025 — A pair of senators from the United States have sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, demanding the federal government issue “the toughest possible sanctions on seafood from China” over human rights violations in its commercial fishing industry.

In the 21 August letter, U.S. Senator Katie Britt (R-Alabama) and U.S. Senator Rick Scott (R-Florida) claimed illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing in China’s seafood industry was harmful to U.S. workers and a threat to national security.

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Canada-led patrol of North Pacific uncovers 39 potential incidents of IUU

August 14, 2025 — The Canada Department of Fisheries and Oceans (DFO) has revealed the results of its latest operation in the North Pacific to fight illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

Canada launched Operation North Pacific Guard in May, marking the third straight year Canada’s DFO has led the annual high-seas patrol. This year, an unprecedented four separate countries – South Korea, Japan, Canada, and the U.S. – participated in the mission, covering thousands of nautical miles.

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Inspector general says Coast Guard misses illegal fishing in US waters

June 24, 2025 — The Coast Guard only reached halfway toward its goals for intercepting illegal foreign fishing in U.S. waters during 2023-2024, as immigration enforcement and other missions absorbed more resources, according to a report by the Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general.

“Although the Coast Guard recognizes IUU (illegal, unreported, and unregulated) fishing as one of the world’s top maritime security threats, its low interdiction rates and limited enforcement hours show a significant gap between the severity of the threat and the level of commitment required to effectively address it,” according to the inspector general report issued June 6.

In 2023 and 2024, “the Coast Guard estimatedthat it spent $687 million of its appropriations combating IUU fishing. Based on these estimates, we calculated that the Coast Guard spent approximately $5.9 million per IUU fishing interdiction,” the Homeland Security analysts wrote.

Read the full article at the National Fisherman

Inspector general reports US Coast Guard is not prioritizing IUU fishing enforcement

June 23, 2025 — A recent report by an internal U.S. government watchdog found that the U.S. Coast Guard is not prioritizing the prevention of illegal, unregulated, and unreported (IUU) fishing, leading it to miss its interdiction goals for the last two years.

According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Office of the Inspector General, the Coast Guard devoted just 4 percent of its mission hours to tackling IUU fishing in 2023 and 2024. While setting a goal of interdicting 40 percent of foreign fishing vessels illegally operating in U.S. waters, the Coast Guard only interdicted 21 percent of those vessels.

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US senators lambast IUU fishing and abuse in foreign fleets during hearing

June 18, 2025 — U.S. senators used a subcommittee hearing to heavily criticize illegal, unregulated, and unreported (IUU) fishing practices – an activity they claimed reduces revenue for America’s seafood sector and poses a direct national security threat to the country.

“It is estimated that IUU fishing accounts for up to 20 percent of the global catch, which translates to global losses between USD 10 billion and USD 50 billion [EUR 8.7 billion to EUR 43.4 billion] annually for fishing fleets that actually fish legally like ours in America,” U.S. Senator Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) said in the recent Senate Subcommittee on Coast Guard, Maritime, and Fisheries hearing.

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US lawmakers push to condemn use of flags of convenience

June 6, 2025 — U.S. lawmakers in Congress have proposed a resolution condemning the use of flags of convenience, a practice where owners register their vessels in nations with lower standards and weaker regulatory enforcement to avoid taxes and regulations in their home nation.

Introduced by U.S. Representative James Moylan (R-Guam) and U.S. Representative Jill Tokuda (D-Hawaii), the resolution “condemns the international use of flag of convenience to avoid tariffs, sanctions, workplace rights, and basic safety standards, as well as supporting criminal opportunity, illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, and terrorist operations.”

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FAO, GFCM celebrate work done to combat IUU fishing over the last decade

June 6, 2025 — The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations and the General Fisheries Commission for the Mediterranean (GFCM) have come together to celebrate the International Day for the Fight Against Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing on 5 June.

The date was chosen in 2015 to mark the entry into force of the Port State Measures Agreement, the first binding international agreement which sought to address IUU fishing and which has been ratified by more than 50 nations and the European Union. Most recently, China signed the agreement.

Read the full article at SeafoodSource