As the European Union (EU) takes Fiji and Vanuatu to task for having weak laws to tackle illegal fishing, international environmental campaigner Greenpeace has urged the EU to also set a good example and support local fish conservation efforts while fishing in the Pacific.
Fiji and Vanuatu are part of eight third countries cited by the EU last November for having weak laws to tackle Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing and they’ve been given six months to improve weak areas or be deemed non-cooperating third countries in EU’s fight against IUU, a status that could see them losing EU market access for all their fish products.
Greenpeace, an organisation firmly opposed to illegal fishing, said while it commends the EU’s move, it believes the EU should also respect regional agreements and conservation measures when their fishing fleets come to the Pacific to fish.
The EU has solid regulations on IUU that binds their members to fulfill certain requirements and obligations. That is commendable, Greenpeace Australia Pacific told ISLANDS BUSINESS last month.
These regulations also affect countries that they have relationships with and clearly there are issues the EU is concerned with on IUU where Fiji and Vanuatu are affected and we hope all parties resolve this quickly.
In the same token, when the EU comes to the Pacific and wants to fish here, they need to ensure they too respect our regional agreements and conservation measures.
For example, said Greenpeace, the EU has blocked certain regulations such as flick the switch’ proposal by the Pacific Islands Forum Fisheries Agency (FFA) countries that would allow, for example, EU flagged tuna fishing vessels to be tracked throughout the Western and Central Pacific ocean.
This pragmatic proposal would effectively tackle IUU fishing in the Pacific. The EU has blocked this and we are calling on the EU to support the Pacific Islands countries and accept this proposal.
Furthermore, the EU also blocked proposals by Pacific states calling for the closure of certain areas of international waters, dubbed the high seas pockets, which are known hotspots for IUU fishing in the region.
IUU remains rife in our region as our expeditions have shown year after year and just recently we caught an illegal transfer of tuna at sea in the high seas pocket.
The single biggest step the region could take to curb IUU fishing would be to close the high seas beginning with the high seas pocketsto all fishing and designate them as marine reserves. These areas are havens for pirate fishing and much of the IUU fishing we’ve observed in the region has been in these pockets, or just within national waters near high seas boundaries, Greenpeace said.
The EU’s decision to flag Fiji and Vanuatu in the Pacific region, along with six othersBelize, Cambodia, Guinea, Panama, Sri Lanka and Togohas to do with lapses in national IUU laws and their failure to comply with international laws against IUU.
Fiji was yellow carded for not having laws to punish Fiji-flagged vessels and Fijian nationals engaged in illegal fishing in the high seas, as well as for failing to make available conservation data on tuna and other fish species caught in its waters, required of it as a member of the Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission (WCPFC).
Vanuatu’s weaknesses lay in its non-commitment to tackle recurring incidences of illegal fishing by Vanuatu-flagged vessels in the high seas. The Indian Ocean Tuna Commission (IOTC) had put two Vanuatu-flagged vessels on its IUU list at different times and this, said the EU, was an indication that Vanuatu had failed to carry out its responsibilities effectively to comply with stock conservation and management measures put in place by such regional fisheries management organisations.
While the EU agrees to views that support the Pacific’s efforts to tackle IUU fishing such as FFA’s flick the switch’ proposalwhich requires that all vessels passing through its members’ Exclusive Economic Zone switch on their vessels monitoring systems (VMS) so their activities could be monitored. It believes this will not specifically tackle illegal fishing and in fact borders on the violation of the rights of foreign flagged vessels, as spelt out in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).
One has to be aware that VMS data cannot define beyond reasonable doubt what type of activity a vessel performs in the EEZ and whether it is actually fishing or not, said Adam Janssen, Head of the Political, Trade, Communication and Information section at the EU’s Suva-based Pacific headquarters.
It is also important to the EU that such arrangement for VMS data access does not undermine the fine balance achieved in UNCLOS between rights of coastal and flagged states.
For example, UNCLOS provides for foreign flagged vessels that are not authorised to fish in a given EEZ, territorial sea or archipelagic waters of a coastal state to be able to innocently cross them without asking explicit permission or being subject to restrictive measures by the coastal states.
The EU has always confirmed its availability to find an agreement within the frame of existing international law, Janssen added.
At last month’s meeting in Manila of WCPFC memberswhich include FFA members and Distant Water Fishing Nationsthe proposal to flick the switch’ was approved.
While that is yet another important progress towards tuna conservation in the region, a lot of work is still needed on national laws to complement efforts at regional level.
All laws in the Pacific need to be consistent so that they are a region-wide legal buffer to IUU fishing, said Greenpeace.
IUU fishing is a concern for all coastal states in the Pacific as it is estimated that the loss from IUU fishing in the Western and Central Pacific Ocean is in the vicinity of 21-46 percent of reported catch valued at between US$700,000 to US$1.5 billion annually. All laws need to serve as a deterrent and that means heavy penalties must apply.
Stealing a key source of protein from the mouths of rural coastal communities, artisanal fishing industries and taxpayers is morally wrong. We in the Pacific need to make IUU fishing harder to get away with. This is harder said than done as collectively, we have a huge expanse of ocean to look after.
Flag states need to ensure they are managing all vessels flagged to them at the same standard and they need to be vigilant that their flags are not being used as flags of convenience’ by international boat owners seeking to exploit loopholes in international fisheries/maritime laws.
We understand that there are initiatives underway supported at the regional level to harmonise and strengthen existing fisheries legislation in various Pacific islands countries and we urge that this process be efficiently and effectively completed in order to tackle the myriad of fisheries issues such as IUU fishing, said Greenpeace.
For Fiji and Vanuatu, the next six months will be crucial.The European Commission, through Commissioner Maria Damanaki, has sent letters to all eight notified third countries, including Fiji and Vanuatu, opening the dialogue process and inviting them to cooperate with the European Commission on this issue.
The notified countries should reply to the Commission before the end of the year (last month) on their intention to cooperate, and they will have six monthuntil the end of May 2013to reach an agreement with the European Commission on an action plan to remedy the identified deficiencies, Janssen said.
2007 Islands Business International