13-May-2017: Centre plans to provide financial assistance and introduce norms to improve labour conditions in the fishing sector.

The financial assistance will ensure that the Indian fishing fleet does not engage in ‘Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated’ (IUU) fishing, according to the National Policy on Marine Fisheries, 2017.

The Indian marine fisheries account for an economic wealth of about Rs. 65,000 crore, according to the policy — meant to guide the coordination and management of India’s marine fisheries during the next 10 years. However, fishermen are having difficulties in availing institutional credit to buy fishing implements and crafts, and that the risky nature of returns has led to many fishermen falling into the debt trap of private financiers and middlemen. Therefore, the Centre, with the help of National Bank of Agriculture and Rural Development, will provide financial assistance to fishermen with liberal terms and conditions.

IUU fishing:

“IUU” stands for illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing. IUU fishing includes all fishing that breaks fisheries laws or occurs outside the reach of fisheries laws and regulations. An important part of IUU fishing is illegal fishing, which usually refers to fishing without a license, fishing in a closed area, fishing with prohibited gear, fishing over a quota, or the fishing of prohibited species. Most of the world’s fish is caught in the national waters of coastal States. Illegal fishing in such areas can range from a licensed vessel fishing more than its allowed catch to a vessel coming into the zone with no fishing license at all, or even a vessel crew not reporting or underreporting their catch—even if the vessel is licensed to catch that species. A lot of unregulated fishing occurs on the high seas. The high seas are international waters beyond the exclusive economic zone, which extends 200 nautical miles from the shoreline, of a coastal state. Patchy regulation, little enforcement, and the vast expanse of the ocean—the high seas cover almost 45 percent of our planet—combine to allow rampant illegal and unregulated fishing in those areas. Even when unregulated fishing on the high seas does not break any national law, it can have a significant harmful impact on marine life in the world’s oceans. So, the international community needs to develop and implement policy solutions that both forbid and eradicate these activities.

Impacts of illegal fishing:

Illegal fishing adversely affects legitimate commercial fishers as well as fish populations. Illegal fishers avoid overhead costs, such as licensing fees. They fish without the constraints accepted by legal fishers, often falsify documentation, and effectively “launder” their ill-gotten catch. Illegal fishers’ actions constitute a clear case of unfair competition since they operate without the costs of doing business legally or the strictures of following established policies and laws. Also, because illegal fishers do not report catch, their fishing activities affect the accuracy of official fish catch and stock estimates. This adversely affects how fisheries are managed because regulatory bodies use reported catches and stock estimates to set catch limits and otherwise manage fish populations. Thus, because the real volume of fish caught is unknown, it is very difficult to effectively manage fisheries where illegal fishing is taking place. Finally, illegal fishing often causes grave environmental damage, especially when vessels use prohibited gear, such as driftnets, that catches nontarget species (including sharks, turtles or dolphins) or physically damages or destroys reefs, seamounts, and other vulnerable marine ecosystems.