Saving Seafood

US-China fight over fishing is really about world domination

September 22, 2020 — China’s aggressive, sometimes illegal fishing practices are the latest source of conflict with the United States.

China has the world’s largest fishing fleet. Beijing claims to send around 2,600 vessels out to fish across the globe, but some maritime experts say this distant-water fishing fleet may number nearly 17,000. The United States has fewer than 300 distant-water ships.

According to the 1982 United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea, nations control marine resources within a 200-mile “exclusive economic zone”; beyond that are international waters. While the U.S. never signed the treaty, it has declared a 200-mile offshore exclusive economic zone.

Read the full story at Yahoo News

Negotiations halfway complete on UN high seas treaty, with far-reaching impacts for seafood industry

August 8, 2019 — Time is running out for the fishing and seafood industries to weigh in on a United Nations treaty that will govern fishing and other activities on the high seas.

The treaty is being developed as part of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea and is formally known as the Biodiversity Beyond National Jurisdiction (BBNJ) Agreement. It could raise costs for fishermen by adding administrative and reporting requirements for those who fish outside of countries’ national waters.

Read the full story at Seafood Source

Illegal fishing heats up diplomatic exchanges between Vietnam, Malaysia, and Indonesia

May 14, 2019 — Diplomatic relations in Southeast Asia have been strained in recent weeks following alleged encroachments by Vietnamese fishermen in Malaysian and Indonesian territorial waters.

Tensions have flared as inspectors from the European Commission are expected to visit Vietnam later this month or early June to review the “yellow card” given to Vietnam in 2017, imposed in part due to Vietnam’s failure to curb its fleet’s participation in illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.

On 8 May, Malaysia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned Vietnam’s ambassador to demand an explanation of the large number of encroachments of Vietnamese vessels into Malaysian territorial waters. Ministry Deputy Secretary-General Raja Datuk Nushirwan Zainal Abidin received ambassador Le Quy Quynh and handed over a protest note expressing the Malaysian government’s objection to the encroachments, according to a statement from the ministry.

“The Vietnamese government was urged to take measures to rectify the situation,” the statement said.

A total of 748 vessels and 7,203 Vietnamese crew members have been detained by Malaysian authorities on suspicion of illegal fishing since 2006. The encroachments into Malaysian waters by Vietnamese fishermen are not only a threat to Malaysian citizens, but also a violation of Malaysia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, and contravene international law, including relevant provisions of the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the ministry’s statement said.

Read the full story at Seafood Source