Fish worth almost 19 billion euros is landed illegally each year, and efforts to clamp down on it are futile, a new study shows.
The study, published in May in the Science magazine, contends that annually up to 26 million tonnes are landed illegally, worth an estimated $23 billions.
“Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing is a global problem and it needs a global answer,” Kristin von Kistowski, one of the authors and a senior adviser to the Pew Environment Group, told BBC.
In an effort to step up the fight against IUU fishing, the United Nations approved the Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA) in 2009, which would require the “port state” to prevent any vessel listed as being involved in IUU from calling at port or landing catches there.
Under the all-embracing UN Convention of the Law of the Sea, it is the nation where the vessel is registered, the “flag state”, that controls its activities.
The PSMA needs ratification from at least 25 states to take effect, and so far only 15 nations and the European Union (counted as one entity) have done so.
For the study, the researchers tracked port visits over six years (2004-2009) by vessels listed as IUU fishers. They found that only one third of them could be traced in that way, which suggests that many disguise their identity when pulling in, the report says.
The report also points to the lack of a centralised list of IUU perpetrators.
“All of the problems we encountered as we attempted to compile data – on the vessels, their movements and the actions taken by ports they visited – were telling in themselves as far as the weaknesses of the system are concerned,” Dr von Kistowski told BBC.
She added that even if the PSMA were finally adopted and enforced, there would still be loopholes, since not all nations are likely to sign it.