The European Commission and the Indian Ocean Commission (IOC) have entered into a partnership to fight illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fisheries in the region.
The framework partnership agreement that launches a regional plan for fisheries surveillance in the southwest Indian Ocean was signed in the Seychelles on 23-24 January.
The EU will fund the initial project under this plan to a total of €7 million covering the first three years (2007-2010).
The objective of the plan is to improve the capacities of the Indian Ocean countries to develop, adopt and implement strategies for monitoring, control and surveillance. The plan should strengthen existing national efforts though pooling of resources, improved co-ordination and data sharing. The EU will contribute financially to the costs of intensified surveillance efforts and will help to explore the benefits of using sophisticated technologies for surveillance such as satellite monitoring.
The ministerial declaration adopted at the conference endorses at political level several measures that the IOC contracting parties have already committed themselves to applying immediately. The measures aim at making it more difficult and less profitable for IUU vessels to circumvent fishing rules. The measures include a ban against transhipment at sea (transfer of cargo, crews and supplies between vessels at sea) and denial of access to ports for vessels that have been blacklisted by any regional fisheries management organisation, or that are not included on the “white list” of vessels fishing legally. Measures also include harmonisation of national legislation against IUU fisheries, and setting fines at a level that deter illegal activities.
