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NOAA: Italy And Panama Continue Illegal Tuna Fishingff

13 January 2011 United States

Source: New York Times

Vessels from six nations, including Italy, engaged in illegal fishing on the high seas in 2009 and 2010, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reported to Congress on Wednesday.

The report details the widespread use of illegal driftnets, overfishing of stocks protected by international quotas and the unlawful use of spotting planes to catch increasingly rare bluefin tuna, among other violations. Also cited for violations were vessels from Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Portugal and Venezuela.

A 2006 amendment to federal fisheries law requires NOAA to investigate and report to Congress on nations whose fleets engage in illegal and unregulated fishing, and to work with violators to bring them back into compliance. Countries that fail to address complaints after two years can be subject to economic sanctions.

Six nations cited in last year’s report — China, France, Libya, Italy, Panama and Tunisia — have taken steps to crack down on unlawful fishing and have been certified as back in compliance with international law, the report said.

Yet fleets from two of these countries, Italy and Panama, continued to engage in illegal fishing, putting them again in violation. In Italy, a number of vessels were fined for the use of outlawed driftnets and have had illegal catches seized by the authorities in the last two years. But the fines are small — less than $4,000 per violation — and many of the vessels cited continued to use the unlawful nets, which are typically used to catch valuable bluefin tuna, the report found.

The report also noted that illegal fishing is difficult to detect, suggesting that far more violations are taking place in international waters than is readily apparent. “Monitoring and detection are difficult,” the report states. “This renders quantification of the problem elusive.”

The Pew Environment Group, which studies fisheries issues, estimates that one-fifth of all fish taken from the world’s oceans are fished illegally or without any management of stocks.

Even sanctioned fishing operations may be damaging fish stocks beyond repair, a number of conservation groups have warned. Bluefin tuna stocks, for example, are believed by some scientists to be in danger of collapse, but the international fisheries management group that regulates the bluefin catch has refused to lower quotas or to ban fishing in spawning grounds.