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Closing access to IUU fishing products, together
As global consumption of aquatic foods continues to increase, the international community must do more to adopt, ratify and implement the PSMA together, and this includes Indonesia.
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Big catch: Workers unload their catch from a boat at Muara Baru port in Jakarta on May 6, 2024. The Maritime Affairs and Fisheries Ministry has planned to raise investment in the fishery sector by 15 percent to Rp 12 trillion (US$740 million) this year. (Antara/Erlangga Bregas Prakoso)
T
oday, we are eating twice as much aquatic foods as we did half a century ago (Food and Agriculture Organization/FAO, 2022). This rise in consumption has led to global fish and seafood production quadrupling over the last 50 years, leading to the full exploitation and overfishing of almost 90 percent of the world’s marine fish stocks (World Bank, 2017).
In other words, overfishing has become a serious threat to the sustainability of marine and fishery resources.
Overfishing disrupts marine biodiversity and ecosystem functions, which in turn depletes fishery resources. One of the main drivers of overfishing is illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
IUU fishing clearly undermines national and regional efforts to manage fisheries sustainably and conserve marine biodiversity (FAO, 2022). However, the existence of ports of convenience provides access for these IUU fishing products to enter the market.
The FAO’s Agreement on Port State Measures (PSMA) to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing is the first and, until recently, the only international legally binding instrument to close market access to IUU fishing products.
The PSMA, which entered into force on June 5, 2016, has an objective to ensure long-term conservation and sustainable use of living marine resources and ecosystems.
Under the agreement, port states must deny foreign fishing vessels suspected of having engaged in IUU fishing activities from entering their ports and landing their catches. In the long run, all states are expected to adopt the PSMA. To date, 78 countries are parties to the agreement, signifying global recognition of port state measures to stop IUU fishing.
