Australia and New Zealand support IUU

The initiatives result from the ministerially-led Task Force on IUU Fishing on the High Seas, which has just held a final meeting in Paris and launched its report, “Closing the Net: Stopping Illegal Fishing on the High Seas”.

Australia will work closely with others to implement an enhanced international monitoring, control and surveillance (MCS) network, an Australia-New Zealand scoping study to develop a global information system on high-seas fishing vessels, and a range of measures to strengthen high-seas governance and regional fisheries management organisations.

The initiatives include funds to work with developing nations — recognising that many countries lack the capacity to control fishing vessels in their own waters; the waters of other countries and on the high seas.

While Australia already works closely with nations such as Mauritius to build their capacity to control IUU fishing vessels and trade, the Task Force will encourage further international cooperation in this area.

The MCS network and global information system will be particularly valuable in helping nations to enhance and better target their enforcement efforts. “Enforcement action is expensive, so timely and accurate information on the activities of IUU fishing vessels and operators can help to ensure best use of available assets,” the Minister said.

“Australia will continue to be a driving force behind the Task Force — maintaining our role as a world leader in the global fight against IUU fishing. We remain committed to pursuing robust international governance and strong enforcement action,” he added. Support for the Task Force initiatives is part of this strategy.

The IUU global problem is also of concern to New Zealand where the country’s Fisheries Minister, Jim Anderton, has called for immediate action. Addressing the Paris meeting he endorsed the task force’s report but highlighted the "enormity of the challenges" to come. "At the moment it is still a lose/lose situation. In the absence of global political resolve and the necessary leadership to sustain it, IUU fishing continues to threaten the sustainability of fish stocks and marine environments."

Anderton, while endorsing the work of the Task Force and the Round Table initiative that catalysed it*, noted that the report called for a multilateral approach to "expose, deter, and enforce".

"Exposing the illegal fishing activity; deterring those who undertake such damaging practices, and importantly, enforcing whatever framework results to ensure compliance - these are the challenges."

He applauded recommendations to expand and enhance the International Monitoring, Control and Surveillance Network and establish a vessel information system but warned that while the report had resulted from a coalition of ministers from "like-minded countries", a major challenge would be enlisting the support of those countries not as aware of the issue and not as inclined to address it.

Anderton used New Zealand's recent hosting of an international meeting in Wellington to establish a South Pacific Regional Fisheries Management Organisation as an example of filling the existing high seas governance gaps.

"With co-sponsors Chile and Australia, and with New Zealand international legal expert Bill Mansfield as chair, I'm hopeful that a Regional Fisheries Management Organisation in the South Pacific will help address some of these global IUU issues in our own 'back yard'," he said.

*The High Seas Task Force was created following the Johannesburg World Summit in 2002 at the recommendation of the OECD Round Table on Sustainable Development, chaired by the Rt. Hon. Simon Upton.