The Long-Distance Advisory Council (LDAC) put forward a strongly-worded statement on its position ahead of the UNFSA session review conference that ended in New York yesterday.
LDAC states that since the last review conference in 2010, and in spite of the adopted recommendations, tuna fishing capacity has continued to grow on a global basis, with this continuous expansion and the proliferation of FADs being at the root of issues of overfishing, illegal unregulated and undeclared (IUU) fishing, unfair competition between fleets, economic profitability for legal operators, and much else.
The statement also highlights deficiencies in fleet data and the need for better monitoring, control, surveillance and enforcement with the simple basis of No Data, No Fish.
‘The obligation to report accurate catch and effort data, as well as other data relevant to fisheries management is of fundamental importance. However, the lack of compliance with data reporting requirements is still widespread,’ LDAC stated.
‘ICCAT has already a tuna observer programme in place and approved a recommendation for penalties that include a prohibition on the retention of species for which fleet and catch data has not been provided. Such recommendation should be expanded to other mandatory reporting requirements, such as effort and size composition of the catch. Other RFMOs should follow this principle and link allocation of quota to provision of required data.’
LDAC also highlights other shortcomings of management on an international basis, notably the lacy of incentives to ensure compliance and generally insufficient observer coverage.
‘The lack of penalty regimes and adequate sanction and enforcement mechanisms continues to be a major weakness in most international fisheries. Compliance Committees of the RFMOs should have more weight, and strict penalties and sanction rules should be adopted to ensure level playing field between all fleets.
This should include, amongst others, quota penalties, trade sanctions, inclusion of vessels on a global RFMO “black list”, and the withdrawal of licenses of the vessels involved,’ LDAC states.
