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Background |
How to eliminate IUU fishing for
toothfish
As has been demonstrated many
times, government actions alone are unable to keep up with the speed of
illegal fishing activities. And toothfish is a species of fish found
in highly remote areas, often thousands of miles from the nearest populated
landmass, and in very bad weather conditions. For governments
alone to effectively enforce fishing activities in the southern ocean is a
difficult, time-consuming, and expensive exercise.
Effective surveillance and
enforcement can only come, we believe, by legal operators, conservation
groups and government agencies working in partnership to combat IUU fishing.
[Read
about the outcomes from the OECD IUU Workshop held in Paris, April 2004]
To eliminate IUU fishing for
toothfish, COLTO sees the need for controls as being much broader than just
enforcement activity at sea. It involves the need for:
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Member nations of CCAMLR to
work together to devise and implement rules to restrict opportunities for
IUU fishing;
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Member nations of CCAMLR to
take effective domestic, action to preclude their nationals from
participating in IUU fishing, and to ensure they have considerable
disincentives (eg financial penalties) to dissuade their nationals
from illicit activities;
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for innocent countries to
avoid their Ships Registers and company structures from being abused by IUU
operators (who use these countries for rapid name changes of their vessels,
flag changes, and registrations to avoid capture;
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Port States must check all
unloadings and landings of toothfish in their country, whether it be for
export, import or just transhipment, and to provide that information to the
relevant international and CCAMLR authorities;
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effective communication
channels between legal industry, conservation groups, the general public,
and governments to place as much pressure as possible on IUU operators to
cease; and
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the provision of detailed,
accurate evidence and information from those who may be aware of IUU
activity but who otherwise had no-one to provide this information to.
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