Australia’s Maritime Border Command, a taskforce of the Australian Border Force (ABF), apprehended an illegal vessel together with the Australian Fisheries Management Authority (AFMA) this week west of Darwin in the Timor Sea.
The newest operational Regional Fisheries Management Organisation, the Southern Indian Ocean Fisheries Agreement, one of the newest operational RFMOs, which covers species other than tuna in the Indian Ocean, has adopted its first IUU vessel list.
Inland Fisheries Ireland has seized 26 untagged salmon in the Glenties area in Donegal and 1100 yards of illegal salmon drift nets off Inishbeg Island. The seizures were secured by Inland Fisheries Ireland’s Fisheries Officers who are based in Donegal.
In a move to enhance tuna fisheries management in the Pacific, the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT) have committed NZD 4.9 million to the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA).
The five-year EU funded PESCAO project, which includes a component aiming to improve the fight against Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported (IUU) fishing activities in Western Africa, began this week.
Trygg Mat Tracking (TMT) has launched a new combined IUU vessel list website, with new functions and richer data, to give users even better access to regularly updated, high quality information on IUU-listed fishing vessels.
With a bunch of different names behind it and with Togolese registration, according to the paintwork on its stern, another of the Southern Ocean’s rogue fishing vessels has finally been apprehended, and not for the first time.
The Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Food and Environment (MAPAMA) has imposed fines of more than €8 million as a result of the Operation Sparrow 2 investigation, targeting both companies and individuals. As well as the fines, further penalties are prohibitions on involvement in fisheries and on receiving subsidies or state aid.
A judge in Argentina has signed a warrant for the detention of five Chinese fishing vessels following a recent incident when they were intercepted fishing inside Argentina’s EEZ. The five vessels were able to escape, following a long chase during which shots were fired.
Another barrier to trading in illegal catches has been raised as Kenya became the 51st nation to become party to the Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA). This international treaty is designed to end illegal fishing by tightening controls exerted on fishing vessels as they access port services.