57. The Workshop considered a range of IUU fishing problems prevalent in offshore industrial fisheries in the Pacific Islands region. As a Workshop exercise, participants were requested to develop priority listings by countries. However, it was stressed that the priority ranking of issues as reflected in the Workshop report for each country and the region as a whole did not reflect national or regional priorities. Participants were also requested to propose a list of actions to be undertaken to address the IUU fishing problems in offshore industrial fisheries. The priority listing of issues by country and for the region and the proposed actions to combat these problems are attached in Appendix L.
58. Following the development of priorities and possible solutions to address the problems identified in offshore industrial fisheries, Mr van der Heijden noted that most of the actions suggested by the participants had to do with improving the legislation and rules that governments, or groups of cooperating governments, made to regulate fisheries and to strengthen MCS and enforcement and the improvement of databases. He pointed out that only a few of the suggested actions were aimed at shaping the attitude and mentality of present and future fishermen towards fishing in a more responsible manner. In many countries, fishers were insufficiently educated on the principles and research underpinning fisheries management measures aimed at regulating fishing pressure. Newspapers and magazines that were commonly read by fishers and fisheries trade fairs were possible venues for such education. Moreover, the fostering of a responsible attitude and the principles of sustainable exploitation of fish stocks should become subjects in all fisheries trade schools.
59. Mr van der Heijden added that another approach to reduce IUU fishing could be the certification of products from companies that fished according to the rules and which exploited the marine ecosystem in a responsible way. A model for this was the certification given to fisheries products by the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC). When a consumer bought a product with a MSC logo he/she would be sure that this was a product from a responsibly managed fishery where by catch and discards were minimized and where no over-fishing was taking place.
