Expert Consultation held to draft Voluntary Guidelines on Transshipment
An FAO Expert Consultation, that brought together the best technical, operational, and legal expertise from all world regions, met earlier this month to review the draft Voluntary Guidelines for Transshipment.
This followed a call from the Thirty-fourth Session of the Committee on Fisheries (COFI34) for FAO to proceed with the development of these guidelines and an elaboration of a first draft by the FAO Secretariat.
The objectives of these guidelines are to provide assistance to develop transshipment regulations or to review existing ones, with a view to integrating these within the broader regulatory framework, and to ensure compliance with existing regulations through standards for effective monitoring, control and surveillance.
The revised draft is planned to be presented at a Technical Consultation in March 2022 with a view to submit the adopted Voluntary Guidelines to COFI35 for endorsement.
Transshipment, the transfer of catch from one fishing vessel to either another fishing vessel or carrier vessel, is a widely practiced fishing activity in all world regions and in various fisheries to reduce fishing operating costs and to maximize fishing opportunities. The international community has for some time expressed concerns about the risks that transshipment could represent in relation to supporting illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing operations and related criminal activities.
FAO's current work on transshipment is funded by the European Union and Germany.