FAO.org

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has delivered a week-long port inspection training course in Trinidad and Tobago in the framework of the European Union funded project, the Third PSMA Global Capacity Development Programme Support Project and Follow up Action to the 33rd FAO Committee on Fisheries and Aquaculture. The training took place between the 3 – 7 October 2022.

Over five days, twenty-six participants from ten national authorities and one regional organisation covered a broad series of subject areas related to the FAO Agreement on Port State Measures (PSMA), interagency cooperation, monitoring, control and surveillance (MCS), preparation and planning of inspections, the conduct of inspections, information exchange, port inspection follow-up and enforcement; complemented with port visits and a range of scenario-based practical exercises.

Participants found the course extremely valuable, with non-fisheries participant authorities appreciating the complexity of fisheries-related port State responsibility.  All participants agreed that effective port State actions to help prevent, deter and eliminate illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing required a coordinated effort from all stakeholder authorities involved in port operations or with regulatory interests in vessels engaged in fishing and fishing related activities.

In recent days and within the framework of the same European Union funded project, FAO assisted Trinidad and Tobago with a separate interagency workshop.

Trinidad and Tobago became a Party to the PSMA on 24 October 2019.