With illegal and unregulated fishing increasing, 17 nations from the Indian Ocean region are to meet on Wednesday in Goa to discuss the impact of illegal fishing and strategies to curb such activity.
China, which allegedly has distant-water fishing fleets involved in illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing in the Indian ocean, and Pakistan are not part of the discussions.
The Indian Navy is hosting the deliberations under the aegis of the Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) at the Naval War College, Verem.
With the threat of depletion of fish stocks and food insecurity, the Indian Navy wants the friendly nations to work together to curb IUU fishing. A seminar on IUU fishing is being held to review the IUU fishing activities in the Indian Ocean Region, its implications in the economic, environmental, and security domains, and legal voids in tackling these activities that could be pursued by the IORA member states.
According to the Information Fusion Centre-Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR) reports, there have been 379 and 213 incidents of IUU fishing in IOR in 2020 and the first half of 2021.
Delegations from 17 friendly foreign countries, including Australia, Bangladesh, France, Indonesia, Kenya, Madagascar, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritius, Mozambique, Oman, Seychelles, Somalia, South Africa, Sri Lanka, Tanzania, and Thailand, are going to be part of the discussions to counter the ever-growing menace of IUU fishing.
The deliberations come on the heels of the fifth edition of the Goa maritime symposium, where friendly navies discussed maritime security challenges, non-traditional threats, and ways to work together to counter the threats.