Representatives from Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Chile from the Permanent Commission of the South Pacific (CCPS) meet this week in Santiago to advance in a comprehensive regional protection, control and surveillance system.

Attended by Undersecretary of Fisheries and Aquaculture, Pablo Berazaluce, the opening of the international workshop on “Strengthening regional coordination for the fight against illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing” was held yesterday.

This three-day meeting will gather representatives of the member countries of the CCPS to address — as a whole — the regional and global realities of cooperation and coordination to combat this crime.

In his speech, Undersecretary Berazaluce stressed that “one of the central axes as President Michelle Bachelet’s member of Government has been precisely to strengthen the political, legal and technical scope of the oversight function, with SERNAPESCA’s modernization bill.”

“We have been incorporating measures that discourage this global phenomenon for more than a decade, with control and prevention action, where the participation of the communities has been crucial to continue advancing in this country commitment,” he added.

For his part, CPPS general secretary Captain Julián Reina said that “maritime regional integration among member states is relevant, first for the knowledge of local experiences, and second as a valuable opportunity to strengthen cross-border work”.

Among the actions that will be developed in the workshop is the creation of a regional coordination protocol among the member states of the CPPS for the fight against transboundary IUU fishing in the South Pacific. In addition, they will carry out a preliminary mapping of the situation of IUU fishing in the member countries of the CPPS, with the creation of cooperation lines to strengthen national and regional strategies to tackle illegal fishing, the third most lucrative crime in the world, after weapons and drug trafficking.

Source: FIS