This summer, 16 countries across Africa, Asia, the Caribbean, Europe and the Pacific came together to protect fishing communities and ocean ecosystems from the negative impacts of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. Adopted in Kenya this summer at the Our Ocean Conference, the Mombasa Declaration outlines a series of commitments to improve transparency and accountability in commercial fisheries across the globe. Its implementation will help protect fishers and fishing communities from unsafe and unfair fishing practices while ensuring consumers can make informed choices about the seafood they’re buying.
Commitments like those in the Mombasa Declaration also protect critical ocean ecosystems. By working with nature to support a healthy ocean we can become more resilient and ensure we are able to provide sustainable seafood now and for the next generation.
I spoke with Beth Lowell, Oceana’s vice president for the United States, about the agreement and the steps needed to ensure a safer, more equitable and healthier global seafood marketplace.
Let’s start with some important background. What is illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and why is traceability important?
Illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing or “IUU fishing” happens off the books without following the laws and regulations governing commercial fishing. It includes things like fishing without a permit or a license, fishing with prohibited gear, ignoring catch limits, fishing in a closed or protected area, or catching protected wildlife like whales or sharks. It can also mean not reporting what you catch to the proper management authorities or fishing in areas or for species that are not managed.
These actions drive overfishing and put critical food sources and ocean ecosystems at risk. It harms honest fishers and fishing communities that are playing by the rules by allowing bad actors to profit more by ignoring regulations. It’s also linked to labor abuses and forced labor.
Improving traceability in fishing is a key strategy to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing because it ensures that information about each catch is tracked. This includes things like when a fish is caught, who caught it and where they caught it so when you ultimately buy that fish in the store you can be confident it's labeled correctly and was caught legally.
What is the Mombasa Declaration?
The Mombasa Declaration is a commitment between countries to increase transparency in fishing practices in order to combat illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and protect coastal communities around the world. The declaration was formalized at the Our Ocean Conference in Mombasa, Kenya, in June and was initially supported by 16 countries. Each country has committed to improving transparency and addressing unsustainable, illegal or destructive fishing in their waters and across their fleets.
The agreement is based on the Global Charter for Fisheries Transparency – a set of 10 low-cost, easy-to-implement principles that improve transparency in fisheries.
Transparency is particularly important for small-scale fishers, whose livelihoods and food security often directly depend on healthy fisheries.
How will the Mombasa Declaration help fishers and fishing communities in the countries participating?
Transparency is particularly important for small-scale fishers, whose livelihoods and food security often directly depend on healthy fisheries. Better information helps governments track who is fishing and where, assess whether fish populations and fishing grounds are under pressure, and make informed, science-based management decisions that take the needs of coastal communities into consideration. Policies that increase transparency can also support broader ocean conservation, including the effective management of marine protected areas and other measures to protect marine ecosystems.
The Mombasa Declaration helps make fisheries fairer. When rules and information are public, it becomes harder for bad actors to receive unfair access to resources, operate without proper licenses or authorization, or evade accountability. Transparency can help create a more level playing field between small-scale and industrial fishers as well as between responsible operators and those engaging in illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing. By strengthening accountability and reducing opportunities for corruption and preferential treatment, transparency helps ensure that the benefits and responsibilities associated with fisheries resources are distributed more equitably.
Why is combating illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing important for ocean ecosystems and why does that matter?
IUU fishing threatens ocean ecosystems by driving overfishing, depleting fish populations, damaging habitats and undermining efforts to support sustainable fishing. While some countries have laws and regulations in place to prevent overfishing or protect habitat, without more transparency to know what is happening at sea, those rules cannot be enforced.
For the people who depend on the ocean for food and their livelihoods, these destructive impacts can threaten their communities and way of life. Combating IUU fishing helps ensure that our oceans remain healthy and productive for both people and marine life for generations to come.
What needs to happen to ensure the commitments made in the Mombasa Declaration can be put in place?
Implementation will require collaboration, political will and accountability to ensure governments are taking action. The good news? Many of these reforms are low or no-cost to put in place. Improving transparency often means strengthening existing systems or making them more accessible to the public.
Implementation will look different in different countries. Some may need to update existing laws, others may need entirely new regulations. That’s where NGOs and other scientists and experts can help. Oceana and other co-chairs of the Coalition for Fisheries Transparency will provide technical expertise, identify policy opportunities, share lessons learned from other countries, and monitor progress so we can help countries meet these commitments.
Signing the Mombasa Declaration was the first step towards greater transparency. Now, it’s about looking at the existing laws and policies countries have on the books and where there are gaps in the information they collect on vessel tracking, traceability and human rights.
Why is transparency and traceability important for both countries that export seafood and those that import seafood?
Major markets that import fish can have a significant impact on global fisheries and ocean health. In the U.S., we import more than 90% of the seafood we eat. By requiring documentation showing things like what the fish is, where it was caught and what fishing gear was used, we can help ensure that fish imported and sold in the U.S. is caught legally. It gives consumers more information about the seafood they’re buying so that they can make their own informed decisions, whether that's for sustainability or for their health.
For countries that export seafood, it's really important that they're properly monitoring and managing their fisheries so they are able to sell their products in places like the U.S. and the European Union that have stricter import standards.
Illegal fishing really undermines fishers who are following the law, so combating it is critical for the livelihoods of U.S. fishers.
How do commitments to transparency and traceability impact U.S. fishers?
Illegal fishing really undermines fishers who are following the law, so combating it is critical for the livelihoods of U.S. fishers. In the U.S., we have strong standards and reporting requirements. Import control rules are critical to ensure that fishers here who are following the rules are not undercut trying to sell their fish in a market that is flooded with illegal products.
What is the Seafood Import Monitoring Program (SIMP) and what impact do import regulations like SIMP have on combatting illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing?
The Seafood Import Monitoring Program was established in 2016 and increases reporting requirements for some seafood at high risk of being the product of illegal fishing or fraud. Fraud can include things like mislabeling a lower-cost fish species as a higher-value fish, like claiming tilapia is red snapper. Seafood species that are regulated by SIMP must have documentation that details where and how the fish were caught and all the times it changed hands to ensure it came from a legal fishery.
What can the U.S. do to continue to make progress on combating illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing?
Currently, SIMP only covers 13 species groups, which means less than 40% of seafood imported into the U.S. falls under the program. A big part of improving SIMP would be to expand the number of species it covers so we can close loopholes and prevent more illegally caught fish from coming in.
Another important improvement to SIMP would be to require that information about the shipment is provided to authorities before the ship makes it to port, rather than once it arrives. That would improve our ability to stop illegal seafood before it enters the marketplace.
At the end of the day, increasing transparency across global fisheries is how we fight illegal fishing, protect our oceans from overfishing and ensure that communities and fishers that rely on healthy oceans can thrive.
