Leaflet
Keeping Illegally Caught Fish Out of African Ports
Since all fish must be landed, and industrially caught fish must pass through a port to be traded and consumed, preventing vessels carrying illegally harvested fish from accessing ports around the world is an effective way to prevent and deter IUU fishing. The Port State Measures to Stop Illegal Fishing (PSM-SIF) initiative is working to keep illegally caught fish out of African ports.
The Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA) sets out the minimum controls a State should use when foreign fishing vessels enter, or apply to enter one of its ports, and to verify that all fish landed were legally caught. However, for this agreement to succeed it needs to be widely fulfilled, with important steps in the preparation, implementation and application of the PSMA, being applied. Details of these requirements are:
Information gathered in port can make costly, at-sea monitoring and control activities more targeted and effective. Full inspections, as required by the PSMA, help assess the risk that vessels have been involved in IUU fishing and then direct further action to where the risk is considered highest, saving time and resources and leading to a greater chance of successful enforcement action.
The PSMA can be used to prohibit entry into port or use of port services by vessels that are suspected of carrying out IUU fishing or related activities.
Stop Illegal Fishing, with support from the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) and The German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), is implementing an initiative: ‘Supporting the implementation of the Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA) in
selected African countries’, known as PSM-SIF. Over nearly four years, Stop Illegal Fishing will work to implement multi-agency port State measures to stop illegally caught fish and illegal operators entering African ports, in order to promote a legitimate and equitable environment for all fishers and their communities.
Stop Illegal Fishing is working in cooperation and coordination with the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) to develop and implement National Strategies and Action Plans to implement the PSMA and related instruments to end illegal fishing in PSM-SIF partner countries. Stop Illegal Fishing is also working with these partner countries to support the implementation of the Action Plans and to build national capacity to implement PSMs.
By working in close cooperation with the FISH-i Africa and West Africa Task Forces, experiences, tools and lesson learning will be shared regionally. This will help to identify and overcome the many shared challenges faced by fisheries inspectors working on the frontline of stopping illegal fishing.