Effectiveness of the Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing

Abstract

Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing and its related activities are recognised as a global problem as they occur at cross-borders. The failure of the flag State regimes and ineffective performance of Regional Fisheries Management Organisations in managing and conserving marine living resources have been accused causing the rapid decline of global fish stocks. Furthermore, the existing international legal instruments have not been able to address this issue. The IUU fishing and related activities have endangered fish sustainability and marine environment. International community agreed that port State measures are considered to be the appropriate measures to address this problem. Therefore, the Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing was approved at the FAO Conference in November 2009. This paper examines the new and only international legal instrument dealing with mitigation of the IUU fishing. This paper also provides analyses on challenges in enforcing the Agreement in an effective manner.