Sustainable fishing: Endorsement of transshipment guidelines marks a key move against Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated fishing
English, Arabic, Chinese | FAO.
A key intergovernmental forum on fisheries and aquaculture has endorsed new voluntary guidelines governing the transfer of fish between ships, in a move aimed at curbing the Illegal Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing that threatens the sustainability of global stocks.
The Voluntary Guidelines for Transshipment, developed by Members of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and presented at the 35th Session of the FAO Committee on Fisheries (COFI35), which closes today, “aim to regulate, monitor and control transshipment to support sustainable fisheries and further close loopholes that enable fish derived from IUU fishing to enter the market,” said Manuel Barange, Director of FAO’s Fisheries and Aquaculture Division.
Transshipment involves the direct transfer of fish from one vessel to another, regardless of its location, before the cargo is recorded at its final destination.