The Fisheries department today signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Maritime Safety Authority as part of efforts to legalise and record all fishing activities taking place within Fiji waters.
The legal document will enable monitoring, control surveillance of flagged vessels operating within Fijis’ fisheries waters and beyond and access to vessel monitoring systems.
The Department of Fisheries and Forest permanent secretary Inoke Wainiqolo said that illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing has been a global phenomenon which has prompted authorities to act at local level.
“This matter cannot be tackled in isolation but we will need collective efforts by those having stakes in the fishing sector worldwide such as flag states, coastal states, market states, government agencies to ensure a sustainable and well managed fishery biodiversity,” the permanent secretary said.
Mr Wainiqolo said these activities continue to deprive coastal states of fishery resources and the revenue when compared globally IUU fishing is valued at USD25 -30billion.
“We need to localise these concept so an ordinary fisherman at our rural communities can understand how it can affect their families considering the fact that many families rely on our marine reserves for livelihoods,” Mr Wainiqolo said.
Mr Wainiqolo stressed that government will be working with various counterparts to better address this issues at local level with awareness programs and programs provided to divisional offices.
Meanwhile the Maritime Safety chief executive officer Neil Slack said that the maritime authority will ensure that all fishing vessels comply with the various laws.
“We have a legal framework and the capacity to ensure that flagged vessels and foreign vessels using our ports are not involved in illegal fishing,” Mr Slack said.
Mr Slack said last year teams from the European Union were in the country to see if Fiji was complying with IUU regulations however it was unfavourable as Fiji was identified among countries combating IUU fishing issues.
The two agencies are adamant that Fiji will improve its fisheries industry through this new cooperation.
-ENDS-
