Brussels, 15/04/2004 (Agence Europe) - The Fisheries Committee of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) is organising, on 19 and 20 April in Paris, a workshop on illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. Participants (fishing industry experts, government officials, academics and non-governmental organisations) will seek to have a clearer idea of the magnitude of the phenomenon and will put measures forward to remedy the problem. According to the FAO, illegal, unregulated and unreported (IUU) fishing accounts for up to 30% of total catches around the world, in some cases, up to three times more than permitted catch levels (the case, for example, for species like tuna, orange roughy and Patagonian toothfish). Already an estimated 75% of global fish stocks are fully exploited, over-exploited or depleted.
The workshop will tackle the following themes: - the global scale of the problem, the fisheries concerned and its social and economic consequences; - the effectiveness of existing national and international institutions and their powers to act; - impact of enforcement and surveillance; - flags of convenience and the need for international cooperation; - and the role of international and national fisheries law and OECD instruments. (Additional information is available at: http://www.oecd.org/agr/fish ).