A new international fisheries handbook offers guidelines for countries on how to keep illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing products from entering the international seafood market.
The Fisheries Import Control Scheme Handbook, jointly published by U.S., European Union and Japanese entities, streamlines guidance that countries can utilize to track and trace potential IUU seafood and prevent it from entering markets. The U.S. imports 94% of the seafood consumed in the country, yet less than 40% of seafood imports are covered by the Seafood Import Monitoring Program, the U.S. import control program.
The publication is the work of the U.S. IUU Fishing and Labor Rights Coalition, the European Union (EU), IUU Fishing Coalition, and The IUU Forum Japan.
The report, released on Nov. 22, outlines how import control programs operate and recommends a standard set of 17 key data elements (KDEs) that countries should collect from seafood importers. The KDEs include vessel name, unique vessel identifier (IMO number), vessel flag, international radio call sign (IRCS), information on exporter/re-exporter, identity of import company, product type, species name, estimated live weight, processed weight, transshipment declaration, event date, catch area, authorization to fish, port of landing, processing location, and fishing gear type or catch method.
The U.S. Seafood Import Monitoring Program currently requires 12 of 17 recommended KDEs. The program, established in 2016, requires catch documentation and traceability for some seafood at risk of illegal fishing and seafood fraud. It also provides traceability data needed to track seafood back to the point of harvest but currently covers less than half of all imported seafood and only traces the products from the boat to the U.S. border.
In 2022, Oceana released a report showing that the illegal seafood trade, fueled in part by seafood demands from the United States, were driving IUU fishing around the world.
