June 5 is International Day for the Fight against Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing. This date was set by a resolution of the UN General Assembly in December 2017, and was preceded by focused work by FAO (the UN Food and Agriculture Organization).
FAO meetings have long discussed issues related to the problem of conservation of fishing stocks, living water resources, as well as the development of ways to manage them (a rational approach to fishing, maintaining conditions for the conservation and growth of the population of certain species).
Analytical reports from experts indicate that among the problems standing in the way of solving the assigned tasks, several main ones can be identified. These include: illegal and unrestricted fishing (poaching), the presence of markets for poaching fishermen, environmental problems associated with pollution of the World Ocean (including acidification of its waters, as well as eutrophication of coastal zones caused by wastewater from land).
For FAO, the link between illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and sustainable development issues is clear. This is especially true for certain regions of the planet, where fishing forms the basis of life, being a source of nutrition and a main activity. And on a global scale, fishing – is a type of activity that allows you to solve employment issues in coastal areas around the world (about 200 million people work in this field). Fish resources are the basis of the diet for more than 3 billion people.
The term «NN-fishing» refers to fishing and related activities that are carried out outside the law and are detrimental to sustainable fisheries. It is estimated that one fifth of fish caught are IUU fishing. When fish caught in this way come to our table, we become unwittingly complicit in a draining and often criminal practice that damages our future well-being and the ecological sustainability of our planet.
Taking into account all these factors, back in 1995, FAO adopted the Code of Conduct for Responsible Fisheries, which included advisory measures to all countries of the world and, above all, to UN member countries to regulate fishing principles.
Further, the problem of overfishing and illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing was included in the Sustainable Development Program, and solving this problem became one of the goals of sustainable human development.
In 2009, FAO adopted the Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate IUU Fishing, which entered into force on 5 June 2016. This agreement is aimed at preventing illegal fishing by preventing fishing vessels fishing with IUU from entering the port. The document was already mandatory.
To draw attention to the problem of illegal fishing, as well as related issues of this problem, the UN General Assembly declared 2022 the International Year of Artisanal Fisheries and Aquaculture. One of the goals of declaring this date was to resolve the issue of artisanal fishing, which plays a vital role in the life of many developing countries.