Ministerial Task Force Tackles Illegal Deep Sea Fishing

ROME, Italy, December 11, 2003 (ENS) - Five maritime countries have announced the launch of a top level task force to limit illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing.

The Ministerial Task Force on IUU Fishing is part of urgent efforts under the auspices of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Round Table on Sustainable Development to safeguard the world's dwindling fishery resources.

The Ministerial Task Force, the first initiative of its kind, will be led by Britain’s Environment Minister Elliot Morley. Other members include the Ministers of Fisheries of Australia, Chile, Namibia and New Zealand.

Australian Fisheries Minister Senator Ian Macdonald said the task force will produce a "crisp analysis of illegal fishing on the high seas, together with recommended actions that can be both implemented by task force members, and advocated as the best course of action for others to follow."

Fishing vessel in the Russian part of the Bering Sea, where WWF and TRAFFIC specialists say there is absolutely no order in local fishing management or regulation. (Photo courtesy WWF Russia)

Over 27 percent of global fish populations are either over-exploited or depleted, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said this week at its 32nd Session in Rome. Production levels from 12 of the FAO’s 16 world fishing regions, including areas of known IUU activity, have fallen to historically low levels.

The Ministerial Task Force is part of efforts worldwide to reverse the decline in fish populations. Last week, experts in scientific, academic, fisheries management, international law, environmental and fishing industry organizations from 36 countries identified the need to manage the impacts of deepwater fishing on the target fish species and on the wider marine environment.

At Deep Sea 2003 - a five day conference on the governance and management of the world's deep sea fisheries in Queenstown, New Zealand - delegates were urged to "Get frustrated, get real and get together."

Discussions centered on the need for urgent action to prevent further depletion of the deep sea resources. A proposal to ban deep sea bottom trawling and implementing a series of marine protected areas on the high seas.

Scientists gathered for Deep Sea 2003 recognized the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) as one of the best international examples of a regional fisheries management organization, says conference convenor and chief scientist for the New Zealand Ministry of Fisheries, Dr. John Annala.

Fisheries in the Ross Sea near the ice cap are in the early stages of development and are being managed in a precautionary and sustainable manner. But vessels fishing illegally in northern parts of the CCAMLR zone continue to be a problem and, current estimates are that more fish are taken illegally than legally.

Delegates suggested that in the short term existing international organizations should take steps to introduce marine protected areas in the deep ocean. The should prohibit destructive fishing methods in sensitive areas, and regulate the activities of fishing vessels on the high seas, conference delegates agreed.

In the medium term, new international arrangements should be established to control the impacts of fishing on deep water areas of the high seas.

And in the long term a global framework to manage the impacts of fishing in the deep sea of the world's oceans should be established, the conference determined. This framework is expected to be hammered out by the ministerial task force in the 18 months of its term.

UK Fisheries Minister Eliot Morley will head the Ministerial Task Force on IUU Fishing (Photo courtesy UK Government)

Australia will provide the administrative officer for the taskforce. Macdonald announced that Frank Meere, who recently retired as managing director of the Australian Fisheries Management Authority, will take the position in Paris in the New Year.

"The world's oceans suffer in very real terms as a result of global fisheries piracy, and we therefore must be at the forefront to fight the criminals who have no respect for the rules established to protect our fish stocks for future generations," Macdonald said.

Macdonald said he and Morley have agreed that Russia's participation in the effort to stamp out illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing is essential to success. "I am confident that this international pressure will make it less and less profitable for the poachers to engage in illegal fishing," Macdonald said.

"I indicated my very great concern for the dysfunctional nature of the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission," said Macdonald, "and urged the Commission to take positive steps towards sustainable management at its meeting beginning in the Seychelles this week."

"It is important that the world community focuses on the urgency to protect the Patagonian toothfish species," he said, "and also the precious and fragile marine ecosystems by stamping out illegal, unregulated and unreported fishing."