Δημοσιεύτηκε στις March, 17 2004

During recent years, the issue of overfishing has reached the mainstream — appearing on front pages of the press around the world. Governments, trade organizations, and regional fisheries bodies have started to tackle overfishing and its multiple causes. But one practice is especially difficult to deal with — fishing ventures that are set up to avoid international agreements.

This practice is known in the trade as IUU fishing, or Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported fishing. While much of the world’s fishing fleet is under some kind of control, these ’pirate’ fishing vessels continue to ravage the oceans, over-exploiting already vulnerable fish stocks and killing tens of thousands of seabirds and dolphins in nets and longlines every year. As concerns over global sustainability of fish stocks grow, illegal fishing has become a globally significant problem. 
  
What is IUU fishing? 
Fishing that is conducted in breach of conditions governing waters under exclusive control of sovereign states, or fishing conducted on the high seas (the vast area, 64%, of ocean outside national jurisdiction) that is in breach of measures agreed between sovereign states — either at a global level through for example the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), or at a regional level, such as the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resouces (CCAMLR). 
 
Pirate fishing is not new. Even in ancient Greece, fishers from Asia Minor entered Athens' fishing grounds, provoking conflicts between Athens and its neighbours. But today, illegal fishing activities take on a whole new scale. Poachers hoover up slow-growing and vulnerable fish stocks until they reach commercial extinction, then move on to the next fishing ground. 
 
Highly profitable
Modern day pirate fishing, like any illegal activity, is highly profitable. The fishing boats are not required to have insurance, safety eqiupment, or maintenance programmes like licensed fishing vessels. Their owners do not purchase fishing licences, pay for onboard fisheries observers, or participate in costly trade monitoring programmes such as catch documentation schemes.  Add to this the small probability of being caught — and if caught, owners generally have only to pay small fines. This is one reason why illegal fishing is thriving. And why the economics of IUU fishing further reduce the world’s ailing fish stocks — unless the complicated jungle of multilateral treaties and agreements is refined and all loopholes in the web of high seas fishing legislation are plugged. 
 
Difficult to asses the scale
The evasive nature of IUU fishing makes it hard to assess its scale, and today we probably only see the tip of the iceberg. But we do know that the sharp rise in high seas fishing, both legal and illegal, over the past 20 years has put tremendous pressure on the state of global fish stocks, forcing the closure of earlier plentiful fishing grounds. Add to this the fact that fish and seafood products are among the most widely traded commodities worldwide. And that some fish, such as the prized Patagonian toothfish and orange roughy, fetch high prices in the world’s fish markets. 
 
One way to find out how much of traded fish comes from illegal fishing is to compare trade figures with reported catch data from licensed fishing. Such comparisons have revealed that pirate fishing for Patagonian toothfish may have risen by as much as 400% in the span of three years. 

The estimated illegal catch of Patagonian toothfish was 10,070 tonnes in 2002/03 fishing season. The Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resouces (CCAMLR) estimates that illegal fishing within its vast boundaries accounted for some 39% of the total catch in 2000/01. Furthermore, within parts of the area, the pirate catch was much higher and stocks had been reduced by as much as 90% in three years.  This pattern is repeated throughout the world.  The North East Atlantic Fisheries Commission reported that as much as 20% of redfish traded internationally in 2001 came from illegal fishing. 
 
Devasting affect on marine ecosystems
Illegal fishing also has a huge impact on non-targeted species, and on the marine ecosystem as a whole.  As poachers target mainly large predatory fish, these have become much less common, and this changes the natural balance betweem predator and prey in the ecosystem.

Fewer large fish force vessels to target smaller fish that may not reproduce before being caught, driving fish populations even faster towards decline. Coupled with new findings on the ecology of the ocean, concerns over illegal fishing are growing.  For example, in a recent report, Canadian scientists reveal that today’s level of commercial exploitation of deep-sea fish stocks will cause them to decline and disappear in the course of a few years. 
 
Fishing for orange roughy on the Madagascar Ridge in the Indian Ocean started in 1999. Vessels from at least nine countries have been active on the fishing ground, many of which have signed or ratified international fisheries agreements. Yet, these states have failed to apply precautionary restrictions on their vessels operating along the ridge, thereby sealing the fate of its orange roughy stock during the course of only a few years. At the end of the 2003 fishing season, a mere fraction of the peak year catch was netted, and many vessels had turned to other vulnerable deep-sea species. 
 
War on illegal fishing
Some countries have begun to wage a serious fight against IUU fishers, by strictly enforcing their management regimes. Earlier this year, the Uruguayan vessel Viarsa drew headlines as it was chased by Australian and South African customs across 4,000 nautical miles in the Southern Ocean, dodging icebergs and rough seas before finally being caught in the middle of the South Atlantic. The vessel had been fishing illegally for Patagonian toothfish near the boundaries of the Heard and McDonald Islands marine protected area. The chase cost the Australian government A$5 million . The Viarsa carried A$2 million worth of Patagonian toothish in its hold. 
 
Laws are difficult to enforce
The problem of overfishing and pirate fishing is complicated by international conventions concerning the sovereignty of nations and the rights of fishing vessels to access resources on the high seas. The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea asserts the idea of freedom of the high seas, which essentially means that resources on the high seas are immune from sovereign claims — and thus available for all who can take them. This is subject to certain provisions, such as the need for cooperation between governments, the establishment of regional fisheries organisations, the minimisation of ecosytem impacts, and to need to restore and conserve harvested stocks. But in reality, these provisions are too often ignored. 
 
Vessels must be registered in a country, known as a ’flag state’. Where a vessel is flagged is a central part of the problem of pirate fishing. Some countries do not sign up to fishing agreements, and those that do may simply not exert any pressure on ship owners to adhere to such agreements.  Such countries provide a perfect flag state for illegally operating fishing vessels. 
 
Complicated, large-scale business
Last year, Australian customs caught two illegal fish vessels in their nets. The two vessels had been fishing illegally for Patagonian toothfish inside the Australian exclusive economic zone (EEZ) on the Kerguelen Plateau in the Southern Ocean. As the poachers were interrogated, a picture started to unfold of systematic pirate fishing on a scale never seen before.

Documentation onboard revealed a literal alphabet of boats (their names being the Austin, Boston, Champion, etc, until Jackson, with vessels K, L and M under construction). These ’alphabet boats’ were part of a web of professionally coordinated fishing activities, with transshipment, refuelling and changing of crew and provisions at sea, and with operational techniques designed to evade apprehension. Such sophisticated coordination ensures that the fishing vessels can stay virtually permanently on the fishing grounds, while the catch is landed safely in port. 
 
The setup of the company involved in the ’alphabet saga’ and its subsidiaries disguises the origin of fish and fish products, which then can be sold legitimately and reach the consumer market. Ownership structure, flag states, operational bases and names of these vessels have been changed numerous times in the past year to conceal their true identity and purpose. The Russian company whose name was painted on the back of the boat did not even exist. The fishing boats were flagged in countries where company ownership is not public information, providing a perfect curtain for illegal activity and beneficial owners to hide behind. 
 
”If such a large-scale fishing operation is allowed to continue, it is likely to result in the commercial extinction of the local toothfish population within a few years”, said Jenny Hodder of the Coaliton of Legal Toothfish Operators (COLTO), a group representing legal fishers for Patagonian toothfish.  
 
Complete "fishing out" of the Patagonian toothfish stock has already happened at the South African Prince Edward Islands, where CCAMLR has recommended a zero catch for several years for the highly prized fish. 
 
”Additionally, this intense level of longlining by unlicensed operators, under no obligation to comply with CCAMLR conservation measures to protect albatross and petrel species, pose a risk of imminent extinction for populations of endangered seabirds nesting in the region,” Jenny Hodder said. 
 
International action needed
The problem of IUU fishing is so huge that the international community must take action now.  Bilateral agreements on surveillance cooperation are already in the pipeline between South Africa and France and between South Africa and Australia. 
 
”These agreements will allow for better surveillance within the respective remote EEZs in the Southern Ocean. The catch of the Viarsa illustrates the strength of such agreements,” said  Dr Deon Nel of WWF-South Africa. 
 
Dr Nel also stressed the importance of assisting developing countries in beefing up the surveillance of their fishing grounds. Poorer countries are often unable to enforce illegal fishing because they do not have the funds for patrol boats.  In one example from 2003, park rangers of the Bazaruto Archipelago Marine Park in Mozambique watched helpless as illegal fishermen from Asia decapitated marine turtles caught on their longlines as they fished within the boundaries of the marine park. 
 
A Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) ministerial task force has been set up under the auspices of its Round Table on Sustainable Development, to prepare realistic and viable recommendations on how to prevent and eliminate illegal fishing, as well as to ensure these are implemented. 
 
”As long as the world is not prepared to lift the veil of sovereignty around fishing vessels, we will be fighting illegal fishing with one arm tied firmly behind our backs,” declared the Rt. Hon. Simon Upton, leader of the IUU Task Force, and Chair of the OECD Round Table on Sustainable Development. 
 
Under the existing legal framework governing the high seas, the law of the flag state applies. And if this flag state does not make fishing on the high seas illegal, as it has not signed up to the UN Fish Stocks Agreement or to regional agreements applying in the fishing area, then the activities are not illegal either. 
 
The key here is to seek initiatives that knit together regional frameworks such as the CCAMLR, so they cover the entire high sea, and then present a raft of solutions, to which countries can sign up and follow. 
 
”Then, we can say: If you agree — why don’t you do something about it?” Simon Upton said. 
 
Further information
 
The United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) was adopted in 1982 and entered into force in November 1994. It regulates the use and governance all aspects of the oceans. 
 
The UN Fish Stocks Agreement sets out principles for the conservation and management of straddling and highly migratory fish stocks, and establishes that such management must be based on the precautionary approach and best available scientific information. 
 
The Convention on the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources (CCAMLR) came into force in 1982. Its aim is to conserve marine life of the Southern Ocean. 
 
TRAFFIC, the International Wildlife Monitoring Organisation, is a joint programme between WWF and IUCN–the World Conservation Union. TRAFFIC's mission is to ensure that trade in wild plants and animals is not a threat to the conservation of nature. TRAFFIC has today developed its role in addressing wildlife trade issues in a wider context, including major commercial sectors such as fisheries. 
 
The Organisation for Economic Cooperationand Development (OECD) groups together 100 countries. It has a Fisheries section that in 2003/05 focuses on three topics, one of them being illegal fishing. A ministerial task force has been set up under the auspices of the Round Table on Sustainable Development, hosted by the OECD, to prepare realistic and viable recommendations on how to prevent and eliminate illegal fishing, as well as to ensure these are implemented. 
 
The Coalition of Legal Toothfish Operators (COLTO) is an industrial body of legal fishers for Patagonian toothfish, set up in 2003 to combat the problem of illegal fishing from inside the industry. It includes fishing companies from Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, France, South Africa, Chile, Uruguay, Falkland Islands/Isles Malvinas and Namibia. 
 
Patagonian toothfish 
Patagonian toothfish or ‘Chilean sea bass’, as it is called in US restaurants, is an extremely tasty fish and so it fetches a high price in restaurants around the world. The toothfish lives at great depths (2,500–3,000m) in the Southern Ocean where it can grow to over 2 metres in length and live for more than 50 years. Like many deep sea species it is extremely slow growing and does not reach sexual maturity until it is more than six years old. 
 
Orange roughy 
Orange roughy is a deep sea species living to beyond 150 years of age and not becoming sexually mature until around 25 years of age. This makes orange roughy potentially slow to recover from the effects of overexploitation. The species aggregates cyclically in vast numers over oceanic features such as seamounts, to spawn and feed. As a result, entire populations may be fished up in a few trawl scoops. WWF and TRAFFIC recently published a report on orange roughy fisheries. 
 
WWF’s work on illegal fishing 
WWF is working with regional fisheries bodies and fishing companies all over the world to control pirate fishing.
 
In Australia, fishing companies and WWF funded and generated support from within the fishing industry to set up ISOFISH — a now defunct watchdog organisation to report on pirate fishing. The Australian companies, with support from WWF, also helped the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organization to develop its International Plan of Action on IUU Fishing.