The video, issued by One Earth Future’s Stable Seas, looks at the criminal activities that have historically taken place in the Gulf of Guinea and the recent strides being made in combating those illegalities. At the centre of efforts, the ‘Yaounde Code of Conduct’ brings together signatory nations from West and Central Africa.
In a joint operation in partnership with the Liberian Ministry of National Defense to tackle illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in the Republic of Liberia, West Africa, Sea Shepherd has assisted the Liberian Coast Guard with the arrest of a foreign-flagged purse seine fishing vessel with a criminal history of illegal fishing in Liberia. The vessel caught, Solevant, is the 15th arrest of an illegal-fishing vessel in the area.
Ministers from the ten Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) countries issued a joint statement which describes illegal trade of wildlife as “among the greatest challenges of ASEAN as the economic, social and environmental repercussions are severe and widespread in scale.”
Sea Shepherd Legal has collaborated with Gabon’s National Agency of National Parks to initiate capacity-building workshops, aiming to provide legal and policy support to multiple government agencies combating fisheries crime in Gabon, Central West Africa. The workshop series is called ‘Securing Gabon’s National Heritage: Policies and Practices to Eliminate IUU Fishing in Gabonese Waters’.
A report called ‘Legal Opinion on Video Monitoring on Fishing Vessels with Special Focus on Other Comparable Cases’ was published on March 7, showing that the use of video monitoring, or Remote Electronic Monitoring (REM), can be used on board EU fishing vessels to ensure proper catch reporting, and end illegal discarding of fish.
Members of the Argentine Naval Prefecture (PNA), aboard the Coast Guard cutter ‘Mantilla’ fired upon a Chinese fishing vessel which was caught fishing illegally within the country’s Exclusive Economic Zone, about 199 nautical miles from the San Jorge Gulf, and tried to collide with Mantilla.
Several marine incidents have taken place off Ningde or Kement Port of Fujian Province in the past 15 days. Vessels voyaging to that region are recommended to share this information and exercise enhanced vigilance when transiting or choosing to drop anchor within these waters.
The US Coast Guard informed that its law enforcement crews detected and interdicted three Mexican lancha boat crews illegally fishing in federal waters off southern Texas, on Wednesday February 27. The Mexican fishermen were detained and transferred to border enforcement agents for processing. Overall, 3,533 lbs of red snapper and 1,122 lbs of shark was on board the lanchas.
The US Coast Guard and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration terminated the voyage of the 83-foot commercial fishing vessel ‘Lady Kristie’, with three people aboard Thursday, after discovering multiple violations near Tortugas Ecological Reserve. Fishing in an ecological reserve violates NOAA regulations.
Bunker vessels could be proven useful in tracking down illegal fishing and discover the criminal networks behind it, an Australian study indicated. Illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, is very difficult to monitor and many of the ships involved in the illegal practice operate far from shore, where surveillance is not easy to take place.
