The quantification of IUU fishing in the Pacific Islands Region All Pacific Island Countries

Forum Fisheries Agency - Project Dates:
September 2014 - March 2015

Description of Project:
The work, undertaken with MRAG, provides a summary of previous IUU quantification work undertaken in the region’s fisheries, particularly tuna fisheries, and reviews the methodology applied to this work.

A review was undertaken of the information available through SPC and FFA to support comparative data analysis (including log sheets, observer reports, VMS, AIS, landing inspections, catch certification, MCS operations, Regional Information Management Systems(RIMF) and national Information Management Systems (IMS) and the MCS TUFMA boardings database; and thereafter develops a robust and statistically sound methodology that makes best use of this information to quantify the volume and landed value of IUU catches, identifying clearly the different components of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing catches. Use all available information to provide a model for the nature and extent of IUU fishing in Pacific Island tuna fisheries and estimate the volume and gross landed value of catches involved.

The project specifically examined the impacts of IUU fishing in the tuna fisheries on Pacific Island countries, and develop estimates of the economic losses that they incur as a result of this level of IUU fishing (for example potential access fee revenue lost, impacts on the profitability of domestic fishing operations, etc.)

The report also provided:

consideration to the current status of implementation of the Regional Monitoring, Control and Surveillance strategy (RMCSS) and the regional capacity to effectively manage IUU fishing.

consideration to the costs and benefits of further improvements to IUU monitoring, detection and elimination.

Services Provided:

Poseidon provided input into risk assessment, vessel economics and values for IUU actions.