Out of sight, out of control: The urgent need to regulate high seas squid fishing
IUU fishing is a leading driver of marine biodiversity loss, and unregulated fishing is the part governments have done the least to address. Across vast areas of the high seas, fleets target species that no regional fisheries body has competence over, operating with no catch limits and no reporting or monitoring obligations. The result is a governance gap that requires urgent international collaborative action.
This event examines that gap, and its environmental and human costs, through newly released exposés into high seas squid fisheries in the Northwest Indian, South Pacific and Southwest Atlantic Oceans. EJF will screen its new film, Out of Sight, Out of Control, built on testimony from Indonesian and Filipino fishers who work on distant-water fishing (DWF) vessels. The investigation behind the film drew on interviews with 431 fishers from 249 vessels, alongside satellite tracking analysis of fleet behaviour across the three regions.
A multidisciplinary panel of government, multilateral and NGO experts will set out how all stakeholders within seafood value chains can collaborate to close these gaps, and how these efforts would advance 30x30 efforts and promote sustainable fisheries.
Speakers include:
Ilka Wagner, Head of Division for Marine Biodiversity and Marine Protected Areas, Federal Ministry for the Environment, Climate Action, Nature Conservation and Nuclear Safety, Berlin, Germany
Ryan Orgera, Director, Coalition for Fisheries Transparency
Niels Peters Williams, Programme Officer, UNODC Maritime Crime Programme
Dominic Thomson, Director of Squid Fisheries, Environmental Justice Foundation (Moderator)