HIGH SEAS TASK FORCE - A Ministerially Led Task Force on Ilegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing on the High Seas

<body> <p>In an era of overfished fish stocks and substantial excess fishing capacity, illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, especially on the high seas, is recognized as a major threat to the long term sustainability of the world’s fish stocks. It is widely recognized that a coordinated, concerted and comprehensive approach is required on the part of governments and the international community to ensure sustainable resource use on the high seas and protection of the marine environment.</p> <p>At both national and international levels, significant work has been undertaken to improve fisheries management regimes and close known loopholes. The past decade in particular has produced a large number of measures aimed at combating IUU fishing, including a number of international legal instruments adopted through the United Nations and its specialized agencies as well as at the regional level through regional fishery management organizations. Despite these measures, IUU fishing does not appear to have been significantly reduced. Indeed, the prominence of IUU fishing coincides with a significant expansion in high seas fishing capacity in recent years, which has in turn led to an increase in high seas fishery capture rates. As one problem is identified and solved the problem reappears in another form elsewhere. It is evident that flexible operating structures and highly mobile fishing fleets enable IUU operators to move rapidly from areas of depletion to target other fish stocks, a phenomenon which is currently visible in relation to Patagonian toothfish and tuna stocks. One of the key difficulties has been to ensure political leadership in support of internationally agreed targets and other initiatives similar to those contained in the Johannesburg Plan of Implementation and the 2001 FAO International Plan of Action to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate IUU Fishing (IPOA-IUU). This perception of the problem was recognized by the Ministers and other participants who attended a meeting of the Round Table on Sustainable Development at the OECD held on 6 June 2003. The response of a group of fisheries ministers from Australia, Chile, New Zealand, Namibia and the United Kingdom was to establish a Ministerially-led task force on illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing on the high seas. The High Seas Task Force was formally launched on 1 December 2003 by Elliot Morley, M.P., the Minister for Environment of the United Kingdom. Mr Morley made the announcement at the Deep Sea 2003 Conference held in Queenstown, New Zealand. The intent is to use a series of expert panels to identify the legal, economic, scientific and enforcement factors which permit IUU activity to thrive and then determine the key points of leverage that can brought to bear at national, regional and global levels to in order to minimize the incentives to carry out IUU fishing on the high seas. This work will be undertaken by carefully selected specialists. The Task Force will then be able to identify a set of priorities among a series of authoritative proposals for confronting the challenges of IUU fishing on the high seas. The end result will be a pragmatic and prioritized action plan that is both analytically sound and politically feasible and will act as a vehicle for improved decision-making. It is expected that the Task Force will complete its work by February 2006. These web pages describe the structure of the High Seas Task Force and provide information about its methodology and work. They will be kept regularly updated and free access will be provided to the material produced for the Task Force through the documents page. The decision to form the High Seas Task Force was taken following a meeting of the Round Table on Sustainable Development at the OECD held on 6 June 2003. The Round Table on Sustainable Development was established in 1999. Hosted at the Paris headquarters of the OECD it is a body which enjoys OECD Ministerial endorsement as well as strong buy-in from an established core of stake-holders including non-OECD Ministers, leading international NGOs, business and IGOs. Its mission it to promote, on the basis of rigorous analysis, greater international cooperation on sustainable development issues and provide an authoritative view of the best means of prioritizing and advancing the global sustainable development agenda. The specific focus of the meeting on 6 June 2003 was on how to minimize IUU fishing on the high seas and provide for orderly management of high seas fisheries. The goal of the High Seas Task Force is to set priorities among a series of practical proposals for confronting the challenge of IUU fishing on the high seas. The end result will be a pragmatic and prioritized action plan that is both analytically sound and politically saleable and will act as a catalyzer. The aim will be to put the members of the Task Force in a position where they can state confidently: “We’ve covered the field, there’s nothing left out; we’ve identified the priorities and, what’s more they’re priorities we’re prepared to implement. We invite others to read our analysis and join us.” The basic methodology will be to use a series of expert panels to identify the legal, economic, scientific and enforcement factors which permit IUU activity to thrive and then determine the key points of leverage that can brought to bear at national, regional and global levels in order to minimize the incentives to carry out IUU fishing on the high seas. This work will be undertaken by carefully selected specialists within each of the above disciplines. The completed action plan will be placed by ministerial members of the Task Force directly in the hands of other ministers who will then be asked for their views on the main findings and recommendations. Assuming that the analysis is persuasive, ministerial members of the Task Force will be in a strong position to press their colleagues on why, given the consensus on the analysis of the problem, implementation of the recommendations at national, regional and global levels should not be possible. In conjunction with the ministerial–level approaches, the Task Force’s broad business and NGO membership is expected to help mobilize wider public support for the report’s main findings with a view to generating further momentum for change. Importantly too, the Task Force will present its report and recommendations to, inter alia, the FAO Committee for Fisheries, as well as relevant bodies of the UN, UNEP, OECD, the IMO and the UN Commission for Sustainable Development and regional fishery management organizations. The purpose of these presentations made with the authoritative support of ministers will be to seek agreement on the analysis and to press for the implementation of the action plan in a coordinated manner through the respective mandates of such bodies. With its strategic-level brief not limited by institutional, disciplinary or national boundaries, the High Seas Task Force provides a unique opportunity to make a concerted attack on a form of organized crime whose exact size is unknown but is believed to be rapidly expanding and which requires a coordinated, concerted and comprehensive approach by governments and the international community to ensure sustainable resource use and protection of the marine environment. IUU fishing is now commonly understood to refer to fishing activities that are carried out in a manner that is inconsistent with, or in contravention of, the conservation and management measures in force for a particular fishery. Most definitions also encompass unregulated fishing, where no formal management arrangements exist, even though such fishing is often not in contravention of applicable national or international law. For the purposes of its work, the Task Force has chosen to define IUU fishing as: Fishing in violation of international laws and obligations; Fishing of high seas fish stocks where there are no formal management arrangements in place but which remains in contravention of the broader responsibilities of States under the law of the sea to conserve and manage the marine living resources of the high seas; Fishing conducted by vessels without nationality, or by those flying the flag of a State not party to a relevant regional fishery management organization (RFMO), or by a fishing entity, in a manner inconsistent with, or which contravenes, the conservation and management measures adopted by the RFMO or broader international obligations;</p> <p>Fishing conducted by nationals of or vessels flying the flag of States that are parties to a relevant RFMO in contravention of the conservation and management measures adopted by that organization or relevant provisions of the applicable international law; Fishing, including fishing within the area of an RFMO, which has not been reported, or has been misreported, to the relevant national/international authorities, in contravention of international laws and regulations; Inevitably, what happens on the high seas affects the exclusive economic zones (EEZs) of coastal states. So, while the Task Force’s principal focus is on the high seas, it will also concern itself with IUU fishing in EEZs to the extent that this represents a continuous illegal activity.</p> </body>