BirdLife welcomed the fact that the Plan encouraged States to cooperate to identify companies and individuals engaged in pirate fishing. Strong measures were agreed for port States 3, including the requirement of vessels to give advance notice of arrival at port and evidence to allow the port State to assess whether or not vessels have been involved in IUU fishing. Also helpful was the agreement that a vessel fishing in the zone of a regional fisheries management organisation, but which was not a party to that organisation, did not have to be 'sighted' to presume it was engaged in IUU fishing. Birdlife International is the world's leading authority on the conservation of birds and their habitats, represented in more than 100 countries. RSPB is the UK Partner of BirdLife International.
State is a country whose ports a vessel visits.
According to the FAO, IUU or 'pirate' fishing is a growing problem. It has doubled in the last 10 years and accounts for an estimated quarter of the world's fish catch. It is fuelling overfishing on a massive scale, undermining national and regional efforts to conserve and restore depleted fish stocks and other marine biodiversity. The biggest problem arises from 'flag of convenience' vessels which flout the rules to poach commercially valuable fish such as tuna and Patagonian toothfish. Individual bluefin tuna have also fetched up to 30,000 on the Japanese market.