Inter-American Tropical Tuna Commission (IATTC) observers aboard U.S. fishing vessels operating in the Eastern Tropical Pacific Ocean (ETP) have reported last October 2002 sightings of several large, foreign flag purse seine vessels also fishing in the ETP. The names of these vessels have now been made public on the website of the U.S National Marine and Fishing Service (NMFS): http://swr.nmfs.noaa.gov/fmd/iuu.htm . Of the mentioned vessels 11 came from Korea, 2 from the Federated States of Micronesia and 1 from Taiwan.
The reason why these purse seiners have been reported as IUU (Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated) is because they were fishing in the IATTC controlled part of the Eastern Pacific Ocean (EPO), without their country being a member of the IATTC. All member countries operating large tuna purse seiners in the EPO, must have IATTC observers on board. The spotted vessels did not carry any IATTC observers. The main of these observers is to monitor and register the catch of tuna and the related by-catch of other species, such as dolphins.
The fact that they were fishing in the EPO with no observers aboard means, according to the IATTC and NMFS, that the tuna was not caught in compliance with the Agreement on the International Dolphin Conservation Program. According to the NMFS website, this implicates that none of the tuna harvested by these vessels, on trips which include the dates they were observed fishing illegally in the Agreement Area, is dolphin safe under U.S. law. Therefore, none of this tuna may be imported into the U.S.; according to the U.S. agency on its website.
The vessels mentioned are generally fishing in the Western Pacific Ocean (WPO), targeting Skipjack and Yellowfin and usually never pass the 150-degree longitude, which is the boundary between the EPO and WPO. The vessels, their owners and flags generally have good reputation and no IUU record. All vessels are properly registered and flagged. According to comments of a boat owner, his captain became somewhat over ambitious in chasing tuna in EPO and passed the boundary. During that period catching of Skipjack was very poor in the WPO, and fish was moving very eastward.