June 5, 2018 — NGO Oceana has urged national governments to make illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing a punishable environmental crime.
The call for governments to establish measures to be able to take legal action against pirate fishing comes amid an international awareness campaign by the United Nations on June 5 – also World Environment Day – to tackle the magnitude of the problem.
“On World Environment Day and International Day for the Fight Against IUU Fishing, we’re sending out an SOS to call on governments around the world to make illegal fishing an environmental crime,” said Lasse Gustavsson, executive director of Oceana in Europe.
“Countries need to recognize that large-scale illegal fishing is organized crime and should be dealt with as such. Pirates should be behind bars, not sailing free on the world’s oceans.”
Globally, IUU fishing is estimated to account for 20% of total fish catches, according to data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN. Conservative evaluations of illegal and unreported fishing put the annual cost in loses to the global economy at between €9 billion and €20bn, which in terms of fish, is 11 million-26m metric tons.