CARICOM nations join global pledge to fight illegal fishing

By Shamar Blunt

Transnational organised crime in the global fishing industry took center stage in CARICOM on Monday, as the regional bloc officially signed onto an international pledge to stem the flow of unregulated fishing and transnational crime.

During a virtual meeting of the Caribbean Regional Fisheries Mechanism (CRFM), ministers signed on to the Copenhagen Declaration against illegal, unregulated, and unreported (IUU) fishing.

The ministers who were joined by Danish government representatives voiced strong support for the declaration, with many of them citing huge concern for the current state of regional fisheries, as illegal activities continue to place legal livelihoods at risk St Vincent and The Grenadines’ Fisheries Minister Saboto Caesar who chaired the CRFM ministerial forum said illegal fishing and overfishing were currently stunting the industry’s growth.

He said: “Illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing is recognized as a major threat to fishery resources globally, and in the Caribbean region. Available data indicates that IUU fishing accounts for up to 30 per cent of the total global catch valued at several billions of US dollars.

“IUU operators who unlawfully conduct fishing and other associated activities along the fish and seafood supply chain, undermine national and regional investments to sustainably develop, utilize, manage and protect fish stocks.”

Caesar stressed that unregulated fishing in the region has already had significant impacts on the fishing industry, owing to limited stocks and reduced nutrition levels of some catches.

He added that the fishing industry has also over the year played host to major trans- Atlantic criminal networks, with many crime organizations employing a façade of legal marine activities in order to profit from illegal acts.

“There is a growing body of evidence, showing that drug traffickers, human traffickers, small arms traffickers, and traders in contraband goods among others, are using fishing as a cover to conduct their nefarious activities,” he said.

CARICOM Assistant Secretary-General Joseph Cox said the community should continue to use the full extent of national laws to punish those caught perpetrating illegal acts within the marine space.

Cox said: “IUU fishing and transnational organized crime in the global fishing industry, constitutes a serious threat to the security and sustainable growth of the region’s living marine resources, and its biodiversity, and it jeopardises food security and the blue economic development in the region.

“We should also ensure that we zealously guard our right, to prosecute transnational illegal fishing according to our laws and administrative procedures.”

A United Nations Development Programme representative for Denmark, Zazie Schafer, praised CARICOM member states for signing onto the pledge to help combat the issues affecting the blue economy, saying that the ocean’s resources must be protected at all costs in order for the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to be met.

Schafer said: “It’s crucial that the ocean and its resources are used sustainably – many of the UNSDG’s in addition to SDG 16 are in support of this objective. Evidence shows that the impact of criminal networks operating in the fisheries sector is increasing; their actions negatively impact food security, livelihoods, and the rule of law, and they thus directly threaten the achievements of all SDGs.

“UNDP recognizes the value of effective governance in responding to these threats, and that is why we launched the Blue Resilience Project under the Norway Blue Justice Initiative.”

The Blue Resilience Project, as well as the Blue Justice Initiative, supports governments’ responses to crimes affecting the blue economy and assists with building a framework geared at introducing high levels of sustainability within the blue economies. (SB)