After the third London conference on Illegal Unreported Unregulated (IUU) Fishing in 2007 there was a tough reaction against NGO allegations that certain fish markets were laundering illegal catch. Chris Leftwich, The Chief Inspector to the Worshipful Company of Fishmongers (in charge of Billingsgate in London) was one who took the NGOs to task.<\/p>\n
This year, Leftwich was on the platform at the event*. He publicly rebutted the charge of wholesale fish laundering at Billingsgate and also called for a radical revamp of traceability to tackle what he sees as the constant threat of illegal fish to small fish merchants and the need for constant vigilance.<\/p>\n
This year the organisers also made sure there were fishermen and owners speaking, producing a more balanced picture with practical steps to catch poachers and protect honest operators from criminal branding.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no requirement in EU law\u201d, Leftwich told the meeting, to trace [the seafood] all the way back to the supplier. There was a higgledy-piggledy variety of regulations about vessels, cold store and factory labelling. Supposedly indelible labels were illegible, content often differed from the label, compounded by different specie names in different countries. Australia had now shown this could be cracked, with one name one fish he said, adding: \u201cUntil we get that you are not going to stop this IUU fishing; because people are going to trade the fish with various names and bypass the system.\u201d Poachers should be exposed on the Web he said and global traceability needed standard international action to clear up a scenario of \u201cLack of resources, inconsistent labelling, inconsistent names of fish, regulations [being] far too vague [and] a lack of general information\u201d. For example, the EU regulations say a label must carry one of 12 catch areas. One is the \u201cPacific\u201d. How vague is that, he asked, when the Pacific is as big as the world\u2019s total landmass.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you went round my markets and asked half the merchants \u2018What is IUU?\u2019 they would just give you a blank stare. Unless we get consistent information included, I think the regulations are totally and utterly worthless and I think, where possible, we need to identify the actual fishing boats on those labels,\u201d Leftwich said.<\/p>\n
He also attacked the supermarkets for destroying seasonality. \u201cWe have to stand up to these [supermarket] people…the things we do in the EU – I think we need shooting for [them]\u2026when we start catching all these fish when they are full of roe in the winter time. Would you go and shoot all your cows in a field when they have just had a calf?\u201d he asked.<\/p>\n
He said generally developing countries were obvious targets of conglomerates to source mass volume, cheap product which was then used to generate large profits. He had grave doubts about consistent enforcement on traders manipulating product around the world\u2019s ports. Punishments had to be \u201cpunitive\u201d to stop this. He cited a case from some years ago of a trader he took to court who was making \u00a350,000 per 20-tonne container of fraudulent fish. The fine was only \u00a35,000 on traffic worth \u00a3500,000. The rich countries had to give developing states the resources to tackle the problem: \u201cWhat we really have to be careful of is that we don\u2019t just push our problems somewhere else around the world and the illegal trade just goes somewhere else,\u201d he concluded.<\/p>\n
Barrie Deas, CEO of the UK National Federation of Fishermen\u2019s Organisations spoke after Jean-Pierre Vergine, Principal Administrator of the EU\u2019s DG Fisheries had spelt out draft EU plans on IUU.<\/p>\n
Calm and forthright, Deas said the phrase that he had heard used of the draft was: “This is unworkable”. The EU proposal to ban transhipping ignored necessary and legitimate operations so \u201cIs it rational, is it proportionate to apply a blanket prohibition?\u201d he asked. The history of the CFP was of \u201cmeasures introduced in good faith which have not delivered and were not an effective management model\u201d. The idea of policing every fish or fillet was not \u201cpracticable and not enforceable\u201d. Another option explored in the EU regulatory impact assessment, was more attractive, he said, in that it was risk-based and targeted systems through intelligence work. Tailored, regional measures seemed wiser rather than a blanket, uniform system which had so far resulted in failure. \u201cOur fears are that, in the eagerness to address the vitally important issue of IUU, a further burden is placed on the legitimate trade in fish without substantially addressing the illegal trade.\u201d Short-term politics were overriding the need for a workable, practical system. This was an \u201cimportant initiative undermined by a flawed implementation\u201d, he said.<\/p>\n
This was reinforced by James West from Peterhead (owner of the “Fruitful Bough” in the Trawlermen TV series). Speaking without a text, he riveted the audience, recounting the meaning of work of at sea for his family and how so many communities had suffered from bad government stock management and the grinding impact of regulation. He drew an analogy between short-term political conservation tactics and quotas for cod and other stocks, and the invasion of Iraq. Both had often been based on wrong data, wrong decisions, had no appropriate forethought and produced devastating and costly consequences for everyone and everything they touched.<\/p>\n
Richard Ball of South Africa\u2019s Pioneer Fishing Co., accused poachers of corrupting southern ocean fishing fleets crews. New alliances had to hunt down the pirates and the detail of his colourful approach will be in the official report*. \u201cAttack their wallets, go for their assets and try to increase their costs \u2013 they pay no tax, they pay low wages\u2026we\u2019ve got to nail them, we\u2019ve got to jail them. What we need is to hang someone in the morning! Follow the money \u2013 make it impossible for them to operate,\u201d he said. \u201cWe know who they are, we have the names, we have the addresses\u2026\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Gunnar Album and Maren Esmark of Norway\u2019s Friends of the Earth showed how they were collecting such evidence through painstaking detective work, tracking cod and haddock landings from Arctic ports and transit countries to processing factories such as in China. They displayed health impex certificates and paraded company names in a chain of northern Arctic operations. The allegation is these companies-behind-companies (it is all done by mirrors) are taking Barents Sea and third country product for processing in China then re-sale around the world. However, while the fish may be processed in China, is it northern European money which has controlling stakes in the Chinese processing factories? Are the catching and transporting vessels really ‘Russian’, or owned and funded by someone else? Watch this quay!<\/p>\n
* www.illegal-fishing.info\/ 4th IUU Fishing Update and Stakeholder Consultation, Royal Institute of International Affairs, London, 31 March \u2013 1 April 2008, supported by the UK Department for International Development<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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