Seafood2030 recently hosted a virtual forum on December 1-2, focusing on illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and the systems being developed to combat it. The event was recorded and can be viewed at https://seafood2030.vfairs.com/.

The discussion included recent work from the Stanford Center for Oceans studying IUU fishing and the global response to it. With the full presentation of the event, Seafood2030 also produced a six-minute “executive summary”Of the presentation.

The direct economic impacts of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing on the seafood industry are increasingly understood, as is the reputational risk these practices pose to the entire seafood industry. sea.

These impacts can be very harmful for developing countries struggling to manage their fisheries in a sustainable manner. According to the Stanford Center for Oceans, nearly a billion people around the world depend on fish for their primary source of protein.

“In many of the countries that are the most dependent, one in three fish is stolen,” Jim Leape, co-director of the Stanford Center for Oceans, told SeafoodSource. “IUU fishing goes against the efforts of governments to manage their resources and undermines the millions of fishermen who play by the rules.

The complexity of the challenge of tackling IUU fishing requires a level of coordination of efforts and resources that has been difficult to achieve across key geographies, sectors and governments, according to Leape. In a recent presentation, Leape said that a coordinated effort to tackle IUU fishing is emerging to help the industry significantly reduce the impacts of illegal fishing on it and on communities dependent on it. peach.

Leape said the development of technology, strong momentum from governments and market action are working together to support a more responsible and sustainable seafood industry. The presentation provides a context for understanding this problem, including the origins and scale of the problem for the industry, and the emerging opportunities that are driving change on the water.

Advances in technology to identify the location of actively fishing vessels have provided a better understanding of where IUU fishing takes place and provided evidence to encourage government and market action, Leape said. A persistent problem is to try to identify the target species of the observed fishing operations. Less expensive monitoring equipment and technology, Leape says, may be part of the solution, but will also likely require further advances in artificial intelligence to examine the sheer amount of data produced by these monitoring efforts. Advances in traceability technology are also helping the industry to create a more cohesive approach to traceability and combating IUU fishing, he said.

Along with the enforcement of existing laws and regulations, a key role of governments in combating IUU fishing is to require and ensure the type of reporting that will support better fisheries management and reduced risk to the industry. , according to Leape. Enforcement can be particularly difficult for countries with large Exclusive Economic Zones but limited resources for patrolling and interdiction. The efforts of the world’s major importers of seafood, such as the European Union’s red and yellow card system and the US seafood import monitoring program, have helped create incentives for management and improved enforcement, Leape said, and recently Japan has also put in place requirements for catch certification and traceability for certain species.

Market efforts, driven largely by pre-competitive collaborations, support government efforts through such efforts as the ISSF Proactive Vessel Logbook, SeaBOS Company Commitments to End Fishing IUU and the work of the Global Tuna Alliance to increase industry and market voice in fisheries management, Leape said. .

Photo courtesy of the Stanford Center for Oceans