European Union and Russia tightening control of IUU fishery

European Union and Russia have defined the main directions in their work of control of illegal fishing. According to the EU data, the illegal catch in the world fisheries amounts to 20% or 28 million tonnes. In this situation the economic damage will reach 3 - 7 billions of Euro, according to Yarmarka.

The greater part of the World Ocean is being controlled by several organizations. Some of them have been responsible for fisheries of certain fish species, for example of tuna in the restricted areas of the Pacific, Indian and Atlantic oceans. Other establishments have been taking control over the fisheries as a whole in the Northern Atlantic and the Arctic Ocean.

Stricter control in ports is considered by the EU authorities to be the most effective measure to solve the problem. Such a scheme was supported by the EU and implemented in 2007 by NEAFC to stop illegal cod fishing. All the fishing vessels in this area are being strictly checked. In particular, the local Russian or other countries' authorities are to confirm the legality of shipments.

One more thing, in the ports the officials check 15% of the frozen fish landed that is obligatory according to the EU rules. The authorities check the volume and quality of the shipments in accordance with ones listed in customs entry.

However, this system of control is effective when a country can take control over its fleet. It is difficult to monitor the vessels fishing outside the country's waters.

For these purposes the EU has implemented obligatory navigation systemы for those vessels more than 15 meters long to be equipped with. This helps to define the exact location of the vessel.

So matching the data of navigation system and customs entries the authorities are able to monitor and prevent the illegal fishing at every stage from fishing process to market.

The success of this program has inspired the EU authorities to make control in ports during the landing of vessels the general regulation for EU member and non-member countries.

The EU authorities plan not only to reduce illegal fishery in the future but to implement the total control of the process on each stage from fishing to marketing of the product.