Ending illegal fishing is top of the priorities for the Australian Government. After targeting illegal fishing for Patagonian Toothfish in Australia’s EEZ in the Southern Ocean, the Government is now committed to end illegal fishing in the North.
According to a Government Statement, the Australian authorities has already committed ‘unprecedented’ resources to the fight in the North which in the last calendar year netted an all time record 607 foreign fishing vessels and saw 2175 Indonesian fishermen detained.
The strategy to stop illegal fishing this year involves:
Increased cooperation with Indonesia
• Joint Australia/Indonesian combined operations
• New Customs Marine Officers
• 4 new Customs Strategic Response vessels
• New Centralised Australian Fisheries Enforcement HQ in Darwin
• 22 new Commonwealth Fisheries Officers
• New Detention Facility in Darwin
• New Detention Holding Facility on Horn Island in the Torres Strait
• Targeted Ausaid projects to Indonesian villages to provide alternative livelihoods
• Joint Indonesian/Australian Communications Campaign in the Indonesian Fishing Villages
• Joint investigative study into all aspects of the Illegal fishing trade
• Exploring opportunities for cooperative policing work to help in the arrest of illegal fishers
• Continuing diplomatic work to better regulate the MOU Box
• International work through the OECD supported Ministerial Taskforce on IUU fishing
• Continued Australian leadership through Regional Fisheries Management Organizations to tighten rules against illegal fishing.
“The high price of shark fin in Asia makes the fight even tougher but it is a fight Australia must – and will – win,” concludes the statement.
