IUU fishing

Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated fishing (IUU) encompasses unauthorised fishing and all fishing activities that are a serious breach of national, regional or international rules.

Whilst fishing is well controlled in UK waters, with strict regulations in place such as the registration of buyers and sellers, on a global scale IUU fishing remains the biggest global threat to the sustainable management of fish stocks. A recent UK study estimated that IUU fishing costs a minimum of $10 billion, and a maximum of $24 billion, across the world each year - equivalent to nearly 20% of the worldwide reported value of catches.

The EU is the largest importer of fishery products in the world, and therefore a major target to IUU operators. It is estimated that the Community imports around €1.1 billion of illegal fish products each year. There has been international consensus over a number of years that strong action against IUU fishing needs to be taken.

The EU introduced a new regulation to prevent, deter and eliminate the import of IUU fishery products into the Community which came into force on 1 January 2010. Regulations 1005/2008 and 1010/2009 creates new requirements on fish and fisheries products entering the EU market from third countries (non-EU).

All importers will need to take steps to ensure the goods they import have been legally caught. As a minimum, the importer needs to ascertain that his export partner is able to provide the validated catch certificate for every consignment.

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