The 2012 Cape Town Agreement (CTA) for the safety of fishing vessels, adopted by the International Maritime Organization (IMO), outlines fishing vessel standards and includes other regulations designed to protect the safety of crews and observers and provide a level playing field for industry. The Agreement will enter into force once 22 States with a combined 3,600 eligible fishing vessels ratify or accede. Taking this step will bring fishing vessel operators into the same compliance as other maritime vessels and end practices that place crews at risk. Until the CTA enters into force, there are no mandatory global safety regulations for fishing vessels.
Reports show that fishing crews on the high seas, or outside a flag State’s national jurisdiction, are increasingly composed of migrant workers whose status puts them at risk of exploitation by operators. They may be at sea for months at a time, and are often isolated, because they do not speak the language of the other crew members or skipper. In such circumstances, fishers often lack a way to report violations of safety standards on their vessels. International investigations have shown that some migrant workers seeking employment overseas have been tricked with false promises of jobs on land, but end up toiling in abhorrent working conditions on board unsafe fishing vessels roaming the high seas.
The international community is increasingly recognizing that substandard working conditions and poor safety standards are a hallmark of vessels engaged in illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing. Operators who under report catch or fish illegally are less likely to provide their crews with adequate labor conditions, training, or safety equipment, and more likely to fish in hazardous weather. To minimize upfront costs, their vessels might have inadequate equipment or inappropriate modifications, and might operate for extended periods without undergoing inspections or safety certifications.
To ensure the safety of crews on board fishing vessels, governments should implement two treaties that are already in force—the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter, and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing, or the PSMA, and the ILO Work in Fishing Convention (C188)—and accede to the Cape Town Agreement. The PSMA’s aim is to ensure that catch is legal and the C188’s is to improve the working conditions for crews. To ensure the legality and safety of fishing operations, all three United Nations agencies have advocated for the synchronized implementation of these three instruments.
The CTA updates, amends, and replaces the Torremolinos Protocol of 1993, relating to the Torremolinos International Convention for the Safety of Fishing Vessels, 1977. Neither the Torremolinos convention nor the protocol will enter into force themselves, but provisions are reflected by the CTA. Once in force, the CTA will set minimum requirements on the design, construction, equipment, and inspection of fishing vessels 24 meters or longer that operate on the high seas. Its entry into force would empower port States to carry out safety inspections that could be aligned with fisheries and labor agencies, to ensure transparency of fishing and crew activities. The treaty consists of minimum safety measures for fishing vessels that mirror the International Convention for the Safety of Life at Sea (SOLAS)—an internationally binding treaty on safety for merchant vessels that entered into force in 1980. It also calls for harmonized fisheries, labor, and safety inspections.