PRESS RELEASE: Pirate Fishing

This week in Lisbon the European Commission and the Portuguese Presidency of the Council have been hosting the High Level Ministerial Conference on the eradication of Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing. More than 100 representatives from EU Member States, 11 international partners of the EU and the FAO took part. The initiative was taken as a follow up to the Communication and proposed Council Regulation on IUU fishing tabled by the Commission on 17 October 2007.

Outcomes of the meeting were general support for the proposed regulation, with all delegations stressing the necessity to put into place, improve or reinforce instruments and measures designed to combat IUU fishing. Notably the Fisheries Minister of Spain, a country highlighted by EJF investigations as a key player and market entry point for IUU fish, released a press statement giving Spain’s support for the IUU proposal.

Representatives from Developing Nations stressed their lack of national capacity to implement the proposed measures and highlighted the pressing need for EU support to strengthen monitoring, control and surveillance (MCS) methods – a concern that EJF has repeatedly raised in the EU and with Member States, stressing the importance of new and additional support to build MCS in poorer countries to reduce the impact the pirate fishing is having on some of the poorest people in the world.

While the declaration made by the various delegates supporting measures to combat IUU fishing is positive, EJF contends that the time for talk and press statements is over. The causes and impacts of IUU fishing are well documented and have been discussed at length and in detail. The on-going prevalence of IUU is having a growing impact on marine environments and coastal communities around the world.

“EU Fishery Commissioner Borg’s Proposed Regulation comprehensively covers what must be done by European states to combat the problem” said EJF Campaigner Duncan Copeland, continuing “and the Member States now have a responsibility to ratify and implement the proposals as rapidly as possible. Failure to do so will amount to a public acknowledgement of the EU’s collective lack of will to play their part in the effective conservation and management of the world’s fisheries resources”