{"id":672,"date":"2015-12-04T13:28:12","date_gmt":"2015-12-04T12:28:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/academy.pittmanseafoods.com\/en\/?p=672"},"modified":"2015-12-04T14:09:04","modified_gmt":"2015-12-04T13:09:04","slug":"iuu-the-war-on-illegal-fishing-continues-to-build-momentum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/academy.pittmanseafoods.com\/en\/2015\/12\/iuu-the-war-on-illegal-fishing-continues-to-build-momentum\/","title":{"rendered":"IUU: The war on illegal fishing continues to build momentum"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seafood products are among the most widely traded food commodities in the world, with the total commerce estimated at \u20ac130 billion per year. As the demand for healthier diets increases, the trade opportunities for fish products escalate, too.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the high demand for seafood products also further incentivises illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing. The estimated global value of IUU fishing is thought to be between \u20ac8 and \u20ac19 billion per year. Between 11 and 26 million tonnes of fish are caught illegally a year, which corresponds to at least 15% of world catches.<\/strong><\/p>\n

COSTS & MEASURES<\/strong><\/p>\n

IUU fishing depletes fish stocks, destroys marine habitats, distorts competition, puts honest fishermen at an unfair disadvantage and weakens coastal communities, particularly in developing countries.<\/p>\n

To close the loopholes that allow illegal operators to profit from their activities, European authorities introduced a EU regulation in 2010 that applies to all landings and transhipments of EU and third-country fishing vessels in EU ports, and all trade of marine fishery products to and from the EU. It aims to make sure that no illegally caught fisheries products end up in the EU market.<\/p>\n

To achieve this, the regulation requires flag states to certify the origin and legality of the fish, thereby ensuring the full traceability of all marine fishery products traded from and into the EU. The measures therefore aim to ensure that countries comply with their own conservation and management rules as well as with internationally agreed rules.<\/p>\n

NON-COMPLIANCE<\/strong><\/p>\n

When flag states are unable to certify the legality of products in line with international rules, the European Commission starts a process of cooperation and assistance with them to help improve their legal framework and practices.<\/p>\n

The milestones of this process are: yellow cards for country warnings; green cards if the issues are solved; and red cards if they aren\u2019t \u2014 the latter can lead to a trade ban.<\/p>\n

In addition to the certification scheme, the regulation introduced a EU alert system to share information between member states\u2019 custom authorities about suspected cases of illegal practices.<\/p>\n

GLOBAL EFFORT<\/strong><\/p>\n

While the EU was the first major bloc to address IUU, it is far from alone in the fight. Most major fishing nations have now implemented various plans aimed at combating the problem at different levels.<\/p>\n

Among the most recent is the Presidential Task Force on Combating IUU Fishing and Seafood Fraud, which earlier this year set a series of broad, long-term goals for the US:<\/p>\n