Officials from the European Commission have visited Ecuador to observe whether the South American country is meeting commitments it has made to fight illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
Ecuador was given a yellow card by the European Commission in 2019, with the E.U. criticizing its lack of an effective enforcement and sanctioning system to address IUU fishing and its government’s inadequate control of the activity of processing plants – especially those exporting to the E.U.
In response, Ecuador passed a law in 2020 introducing measures to improve the preservation of fishery resources that included heavier penalties for offenders.
Now that the laws have been in place for a few years, the Parliamentery Committee on Fisheries (PECH) Chairman Pierre Karleskind took a tour of the country to assess its effect.
“The objective this week was to observe the efforts that have been made in terms of controls and the fight against illegal fishing. A lot has been done,” Karleskind said. “The ongoing dialogue has ensure that we import products that are not from illegal fishing. Illegal fishing leads to unfair competition for our fleets and serious damage to the environment.”
Ecuador is home to 20,000 fishing vessels, mostly artisinal, as well as the largest tuna fleet in the region. The country is a major exporter of shrimp and tuna to the European Union. But it faced the threat of being cut off from the E.U. if it is deemed not to have made adequate progress in addressing the issues that earned it the yellow card.
Renew Europe, a liberal bloc of the European Parliament, participated in the visit to review Ecuador’s efforts. It noted Ecuador is heavily indebted to China at the same time Chinese fleet has been accused of numerous acts of illegal fishing in Ecuadorian waters. Despite that, “Quito is indeed seeking to rebalance its international relations and get closer to the E.U,” it said in a press release.