Illegal Chinese Fishing Vessel Captured in International Enforcement Effort
As part of FishWise’s ongoing efforts to track news related to Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated (IUU) fishing, we are closely monitoring updates to the European Commission’s IUU watch list.
The European Commission (EC) issues “yellow cards” and “red cards” to nations that have not taken sufficient action to control IUU activity in their waters or by their flagged vessels. Yellow cards serve as a formal warning to countries that the Commission wants to see time-bound improvement in their anti-IUU governance, while a red card can include economic sanctions and trade measures. Countries that have been yellow-carded have 6 months to show improved structural and legal reforms to their fisheries management, monitoring, and enforcement systems. If the EC decides a country has made insufficient progress after 6 months, the country will be given a “red card” and potentially banned from importing fishery products into the EU.
There are currently three nations with IUU red cards:
- Sri Lanka
- Cambodia
- Guinea
- Thailand
- Papua New Guinea
- Ghana
- Curacao
- Solomon Islands
- Tuvalu
- Saint Kitts and Nevis
- Saint Vincent and the Grenadines
- Philippines
- South Korea
- Fiji
- Togo
- Panama
- Vanuatu
The following is a list of yellow-carded nations:
The following nations were previously yellow-carded but have made credible progress in improving their fisheries governance and combatting IUU, and have subsequently been removed from the EC’s list:
For further details about the European Commission’s anti-IUU fishing program, please see the Commission’s news page: http://ec.europa.eu/fisheries/cfp/illegal_fishing/info/index_en.htm