FAO assisting Guyana in crafting strategy to stamp out illegal fishing

Stakeholders in the local fisheries sector have commenced working towards producing a national strategy and action plan that is aimed at preventing illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing in Guyana.

With assistance from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), these stakeholders commenced participating in a five-day workshop on Monday to discuss the challenges and successes of the industry, with the intention of creating a strategy that will help to fight IUU fishing.

In addressing the opening of the workshop, Chief Fisheries Officer attached to the Agriculture Ministry, Denzil Roberts said the action plan was also being created in keeping with a 2009 FAO agreement, to which Guyana was one of the signatories.

The purpose of this agreement is to enhance monitoring and assessment capabilities at the national, regional and global levels, with emphasis given to creating appropriate fleet records and to addressing the issue of fleet mobility – a key issue to controlling both fishing capacity and IUU fishing.

In providing further details of the agreement, Roberts said, “It gives you the right to deny entry to a ship that is suspected of fishing illegally, and with a network you can communicate with other countries. So, basically, you can have a ship that’s out there that is fully loaded with fish and it cannot land the catch, because it was done illegally.”

Roberts notes, however, that the local Fisheries Act does not cater for the new FAO concept to tackle illegal fishing and in order to make it enforceable, Guyana will now need to develop a roadmap to determine the steps that should be taken to address the issue.

He pointed out that the control of excess fishing capacity and IUU fishing required a much greater harmonisation of management strategies and policies between the main levels of fishery management: the fishery sector and industry segments.

“So, basically, it has to be collaborative effort among all of us. We all know that inter-agency cooperation is not always easy, so what we will try to do is developing Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) so that we can work together and try to make it one unified stance against IUU fishing.”

The Chief Fisheries Officer said the application of the measures set out in the agreement would also contribute to enhanced regional and international cooperation.

Government has put several measures in place to help reduce IUU. These include the by-catch reduction devices, installing vessel monitoring systems and the establishment of a sea bob working group.

Vessel Monitoring Systems (VMS) have also been installed on trawlers to allow traceability to give an alert on possible IUU fishing activities.

The Fisheries Department has also joined with the seabob industry and applied for Marine Stewardship Council Certification (MSc). The MSc certification is a well-recognised eco-label that proves that a country has adopted sustainable fishing practices.

This has seen the installation of by-catch reduction devices on trawlers to ensure that the quantity of fish caught and discarded is reduced, thereby balancing the ocean’s ecosystem in keeping with efforts to emphasise aquaculture and to maintain a viable fisheries sector.

Stakeholders from the various departments, including the Port Police and the Maritime Administration, were present for the opening of the workshop. It comes to an end on Friday.

The workshop is being facilitated by two FAO representatives: Christina Leria and Joao Neves.