Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing activities are putting fish stocks and marine ecosystems in peril, and IUU fishing violators are often guilty of egregious human rights violations. As leaders in the seafood sector, we are determined to act collaboratively with our supply chain partners and with governments to combat this scourge.

Today at the UN Ocean Conference, the UK, Canada and the USA launched the IUU Fishing Action Alliance (IUU-AA). The premise of the IUU-AA is broadly situated around three areas:

• Implementing and building support for key international agreements, arrangements, and frameworks for combating IUU fishing, including the 2009 FAO Agreement on Port State Measures.
• Encouraging support for technology and capacity building that strengthens fisheries MCS, particularly in developing countries.
• Promoting transparency.

The IUU-AA will be underpinned by a pledge that is signed by States who are committed to tackling IUU fishing and States affected by IUU fishing activity.

The CTA and ILO188 are key priorities within the GTA’s 5-year strategic plan. Our Partners’ request their supply chains implement standards that align with the measures outlined in both the Agreement and in ILO188. Collaboratively, our partners are calling for tuna supplying countries to make safety at sea a priority by taking the steps necessary to ratify and fulfil the requirements set out by the CTA, and ensure decent conditions of work on board fishing vessels by ratifying and implementing ILO188.

We also want to ensure that the seafood we buy and sell is sourced from responsible producers that have not engaged in IUU activities. We fully support the ambition of the IUU Fishing Action Alliance (IUU-AA) pledge to assure that robust controls are being applied in the ports where our seafood is landed or transhipped through the implementation of port state measures (PSM), that are aligned with the requirements of the Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA), to ensure that illegally caught fish cannot enter the market.

We believe that if governments and the seafood supply chain act together, those engaged in IUU fishing activities will have nowhere to land or sell their illicit catch.