Maria Damanaki, European commissioner for maritime affairs and fisheries, is calling for an E.U.-wide ban on seafood products from Belize, Cambodia and Guinea, declaring that those nations are "uncooperative" in fighting illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing.
"When I am confronted with delaying tactics, empty promises or blunt refusal to have real discussions, I have only one choice: propose a new set of 'yellow cards' to signal that we are serious about IUU regulation," Damanaki said at a 5 November conference in Brussels on IUU fishing presented by the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF). "This will be a usual procedure."
Damanaki said the countries were part of a list of eight she warned nearly a year ago regarding their lax approach to controlling IUU fishing.
"We had been investigating them for several years and had concluded that they were disregarding their international obligations," she said.
Within months, Damanaki said, the other nations on the list — Fiji, Togo, Sri Lanka, Panama and Vanuatu — "had made credible progress" in addressing the problem, but Belize, Cambodia and Guinea still have not done enough to convince her that they are serious about fighting IUU fishing.
"At the moment we speak, they have not addressed concerns linked to legislation, effective monitoring and surveillance systems, nor have they introduced satisfactory sanctioning regimes," Damanaki said.
Damanaki called for the European Council to list those three nations as "uncooperative" in fighting IUU fishing. In practice, she said, this will, in effect, create a ban throughout the E.U. of any seafood products caught by vessels of those countries. E.U. vessels also would not be allowed to fish in those waters.
Damanaki said the E.U. is "midstream" in implementing and enforcing new regulations prohibiting IUU fishing. She said the call for the ban represents the E.U. taking further steps in putting teeth into the IUU rules.
"We have left the river side, where any fish could be sold anyhow, to any E.U. citizen," she said. "We are aiming to reach the other side where 'zero tolerance' is the rule."
The EJF presented the conference as a tool to encourage E.U. member states to take further action on the issue. According to the EJF, IUU fishing costs the global economy an estimated USD 10 to 23.5 billion (EUR 7.4 to 17.4 billion).
"The E.U. IUU Regulation can become the best instrument we have on a global scale to combat pirate fishing, but it is vital all the EU Member States work collaboratively — and in concert with the Commission — to implement and enforce it fully and evenly across the E.U.," said Steve Trent, the EJF's executive director.
