Watch: Ten principles to tackle illegal fishing

The Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF) published the ‘ten principles for global transparency in the fishing industry’, ahead of the Our Ocean conference. These principles aims to tackle illegal fishing and protect human rights in the industry.

The ten principles are simple, low-cost measures, which include publishing licence lists and giving vessels unique numbers.

Namely, the ten principles are the following:

1. Give all vessels a unique number;
2. Make vessel tracking data public;
3. Publish lists of fishing licences and authorisations;
4. Publish punishments handed out for fisheries crimes;
5. Ban transferring fish between boats at sea – unless pre-authorised and carefully monitored;
6. Set up a digital database of vessel information;
7. Stop the use of flags of convenience for fishing vessels;
8. Publish details of the true owners of each vessel;
9. Punish anyone involved in illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing;
10. Adopt international measures that set clear standards for fishing vessels and the trade in fisheries products.

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In addition, EJF’s report and film shows that the global fishing industry lacks transparency, allowing Illegal operators to create confusion around their identities. Vessel identification systems can mitigate this problem, making it hard for anyone involved in an illegal fishing activity to avoid prosecution.

It is estimated that illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing costs the global economy between US$10 – 23.5 billion every year and is a critical factor undermining efforts to achieve sustainable fisheries

EJF said.

Vulnerable coastal communities that depend on healthy fish stocks for food security and income feel most of the impacts of illegal fishing. In West Africa, a region with a high level of illegal fishing, around 6.7 million people rely upon fisheries for food and livelihoods.

These ten principles aspire to transform the global seafood production sector and enable both governments and businesses to secure legal, sustainable and ethical seafood.

You can see more in the PDF below