Year: 2021

Source: Deeper Blue A bunch of chefs and restaurant owners have signed a letter to the U.S. Congress demanding transparency and traceability in the U.S. seafood supply chain. More than 200 chefs and restaurant owners are calling on lawmakers to address illegal fishing, seafood fraud, and human rights abuses in the seafood industry.

Source: Eurasia Review – News & Analysis As much as 25 million tons of fish are believed to be lost globally each year to illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing activity—known as IUU fishing—resulting in the depletion of local fish stocks and major economic losses. Research suggests that up to one in five fish is caught […]

Source: allAfrica.com Fishermen in Gunjur, western region of The Gambia, have raised their concerns over the scarceness of fish in the landing sites, especially the sardinella species which the public consume a lot because they are the cheapest. Many fishermen associate the scarcity of the fish to illegal fishing practices, climate change and unfavorable fishing […]

Source: SeafoodSource A U.S. congressional committee has passed an amended bill that seeks to prevent more seafood produced through illegal practices from entering the country – in part by expanding the Seafood Import Monitoring Program (SIMP).

Source: The Yucatan Times Dark fleets – illegal fishing vessels which deactivate their tracking devices in order to fish in protected areas – are now being exposed by advances in satellite monitoring technologies.

Source: SeafoodSource European Commission inspectors will hold a virtual meeting with officials of Vietnam’s General Department of Fisheries to discuss the country’s issues with illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing on 27 October

Source: The Pew Charitable Trusts Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing hinders sustainability of the ocean’s valuable fish, costing billions of dollars in economic losses each year—to governments, coastal communities and law-abiding fishers—and taking an extreme toll on the marine environment. Although advancements in satellite tracking of ships and legal requirements for vessel identification have […]

Source: Mongabay Onshore owners of global fishing vessels have benefited from the illegal activities their crews practice, yet remain largely untouched by law enforcement. In the last decade, a growing number of international NGOs have worked in parallel to map out and highlight the onshore networks that fund and benefit from illegal fishing vessels around […]

Source: NRDC The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) recent report—Improving International Fisheries Management: 2021 Report to Congress—promotes accountability for illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing by naming nations whose fleets engage in these harmful practices. While the report lays important groundwork, much more needs to be done to ensure that those responsible for illegal fishing […]

Source: Environmental Justice Foundation A toolkit which supports seafood companies to source seafood free of illegal fishing or human rights abuses is now freely available. The PAS_1550 code of practice is now accompanied by a range of free implementation tools that help seafood companies of all sizes supply fish that is legal and ethical.