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More than 600 inspection reports have been exchanged between countries that are Party to the FAO Agreement on Port State Measures (PSMA) through the PSMA Global Information Exchange System (GIES), in the first year since its launch in December 2023.

Parties in Asia are leading the exchange of information through the GIES, most notably Indonesia, the Republic of Korea, and Thailand. These countries have uploaded a significant number of reports of inspections carried out in the last twelve months on foreign vessels in their ports. These are then notified through the GIES to flag States, States of nationality of the captain, regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs), or coastal States involved.

The GIES is the global information-sharing mechanism foreseen under Article 16(2) of the PSMA, developed by the PSMA Secretariat at FAO at the request of Parties to the PSMA. The PSMA is the first legally binding instrument to specifically target illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, which undermines sustainable fisheries, and legitimate fishers who depend on fishing. As of December 2024, the PSMA has 79 Parties which cover 105 States.

The GIES is designed to support the effective implementation of the PSMA by providing an innovative digital tool that permits the sharing of vital information between port, flag, and coastal States, and other relevant organisations, allowing to build compliance histories of vessels to feed risk analysis for States to act against non-compliant vessels, and to facilitate cooperated action between States to ensure compliance with conservation and management measures.

Since its launch in December 2023, the GIES has seen the introduction of several new features, including the possibility for countries to list their Designated Ports and their National Contact Points. 627 Designated Ports have since been inputted into the GIES, together with 95 National Contact Points of Parties and non-Parties. The Advance Request for Port Entry (ARPE) is an additional function released in October 2024, allowing foreign vessels to request entry into port through one digitized system, giving access to the same port State to information about the incoming vessel, supporting decision making.  

The PSMA Secretariat is currently working with regional fishery bodies whose Contracting Parties have expressed interest in connecting their regional electronic port State measures systems (e-PSM) to the PSMA GIES. 

The PSMA GIES was developed through funding by the Government of Iceland, which also co-financed the system’s maintenance and operation together with the European Union. The development of ARPE was also supported by additional financial contributions from the Government of Germany.   

More information about the PSMA GIES is available here.