As per the press release European Union is losing billions if dollars in a year against so called illegal, unreported and unregulated, fishing (IUU). This has become a menace to the government of EU. It is found that increasingly IUU has hits both fish stocks and the efforts to manage fisheries in a sustainable way. IUU fishing ruthlessly ignores fish conservation measures – often in parts of the world where fisheries enforcement is weak – and commonly at the expense of impoverished local fishermen.
There is no doubt that the European Union is the largest market for fish and importer of fishery products with trading partners across the world. But it is estimated that 1.1 billion euros worth of IUU products are imported every year. In order to boost this trade and the authorities have adopted new EU laws which means that exporters of all seafood products to Europe – including canned, frozen, and processed fish – must provide catch certificates from the flag state detailing where the fish has came from, identifying the species and verifying it has been caught legally.
This new EU rules is said to apply to most EU imports of wild marine fish species caught after 1 January, 2010. The rules do not apply to fish caught prior to 1 January 2010 but importers may be required to prove that fact to the satisfaction of enforcement officers before the goods can be put in free circulation.
