Information revealed that the Monitoring, Control and Surveillance (MCS) Working Group meeting ended after five days of discussions about how to respond to illegal fishing. Experts from the 17 member countries and territories of the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) have been discussing tools to combat illegal fishing.
It is no doubt that illegal fishing has become menace to the world fishing industry. Estimating the worth of illegal fishing is difficult but if just 10 percent of the skipjack catch of 1.2 million tons is taken by illegal fishing, a possible US$276 million dollars worth of fish is being stolen each year. This is a great loss for Pacific Island economies, government revenues and for the many islanders that rely on fisheries for jobs and food.
FFA members expressed that it is necessary to use a range of tools to deter, detect and prosecute cases of illegal fishing. The MCS Working Group meeting has been discussing how Pacific Island countries and territories and can improve these tools to combat illegal fishing in national waters and the high seas. Tools discussed included Monitoring tools,
Control tools, Surveillance tools and so on.
The Regional Monitoring Control and Surveillance Strategy (which is in development to assist the region to better communicate and coordinate to target their efforts for an effective monitoring, control and surveillance regime) was also discussed by the workshop participants.
