any treaties. These countries, known as Flag of Convenience countries (FOC), allow fishing vessels to operate under their flag without having the intention to ensure that they abide by relevant regulations.
Pirate fishing - defined by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (UNFAO) as illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing (IUU) - is fast becoming the number one threat to marine ecosystems and coastal fishing communities around the world. Recently, Mega Pesca, a Portugal-based consulting group covering a variety of marine related issues led an aerial surveillance expedition off the coast of West Africa. During the expedition, they found that 45% of the ships they observed were fishing in nearshore waters, taking fish that would have otherwise been used for domestic consumption. The pirate ships, however, export their catch. U.S., Japan, and Europe are the leading importers of pirate-caught fish. Japan has so far led the pack for importing the most amount of pirate-caught tuna. According to Mega Pesca, "many vessels [they observed] are unmarked, deliberately cover the identification marks, or are marked in a manner inconsistent with the regulations." Some Japanese estimates put the number of tuna vessels fishing illegally at 240, 80% of which are Taiwanese-owned. Birdlife International, a non-profit organization focused on the conservation of birds, estimates that nearly a quarter of the world's catch is caught by pirate ships. The UNFAO estimates that in 1998 468,000 metric tons of fish was caught illegally.
Finally, concerns about tuna pirates have reached a boiling point. Tunas are managed by the International Commission for the Conservation of Atlantic Tunas (ICCAT). Over the years ICCAT, which puts regulations in place for its member countries, has been working on the rebuilding of stocks of bluefin and other "tuna-like" species such as swordfish.
Tuna fishermen in coastal countries that have lived by the ICCAT regulations in order to meet conservation standards - such as the U.S. - feel pirate fishing undermines their conservation efforts, and in some cases even takes fish out of their local waters, putting more pressure on the coastal communities.
The Republic of Ghana and the entire West Coast of Africa has been feeling the onslaught of pirate ships in recent years. The African news agency, Newslink Africa, reported, "Africa, like other developing countries is a victim of illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing by trawlers from the developed countries. It deprives the continent of the wealth under the waves of the waters around them."
"All the fishermen are complaining that there is no fish because of illegal fishermen in our waters catching their fish," says a representative of Ghana's Department of Fisheries to fishing community activists visiting the country recently. The pirate fleet consists primarily of industrial scale longline vessels looking for tuna.
In the United States, pirate fishing is affecting coastal communities in a different fashion. Instead of taking fish directly out of the U.S. waters, pirate fish makes its way into the U.S. market through ports all across the country. The U.S. does not have adequate laws to prevent import of pirate-caught fish.
Fish such as tuna caught illegally by these pirate ships end up on plates or show up on store shelves in cans. Patagonian tooth-fish, known as Chilean sea bass, is another fish that has made its way to the U.S. market despite the fact that the majority of this fish is caught illegally in the waters off of Antarctica.
"Illegal fishing is one of the most critical issues that ICCAT is facing and it seems they are finally trying to do something about it," said Rich Ruais, Executive Director of the East Coast Tuna Association. Ruais believes that pirate fishing is undermining the pro-gress so far and poses a major threat to the tuna fisheries.
"Nothing undermines the effectiveness of ICCAT more than the illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing. There is a fleet of boats out there representing up to 130-150% of what is managed by ICCAT today fishing with no regards for agreed upon conservation treaties," says Glenn Delaney, the U.S. Commissioner to ICCAT representing the commercial tuna fleet. So big is the problem, that even one commissioner representing the European Union has spoken out against these pirates. The European Union is criticized repeatedly by other countries for not doing more to help in the rebuilding of tuna and "tuna-like" species. Commissioner Franz Fischler stated, "Flags of convenience are the scourge of the maritime world. This practice effects both fisheries and transport, although oil spills, given their spectacular dimension, mobilize public opinion more easily than the pernicious damage done to the marine environment by fishing vessels."
In recent years, Japan has led the charge at ICCAT to come up with ways to effectively deal with pirate fishing. Some of the recommendations under consideration, such as portside regulations, have already been attempted in some countries. But resources for enforcing and/or carrying out these portside regulations are scarce. The International Transport Workers' Federation (ITF) has launched a major campaign against illegal fishing and maritime transport. ITF agents' activities often replace enforcement officers. In addition to dealing with illegal fishing issues, ITF looks at cargo ships that carry fish, oil, chemicals, etc. The United Kingdom-based organization with affiliates in many countries including the U.S., evaluates and monitors marine related safety, human rights, and conservation issues.
According to ITF, flag of convenience vessels accounted for 52% of the world's gross registered tonnage in 1999.
ITF believes that too often flag of convenience countries allow ship operators to slash operating costs by ignoring safety regulations and exploiting crews - undercutting responsible operators in the process. In the spring of 2001, ITF found that at least in one flag of convenience country, Panama, anyone could qualify to receive a First Officer's Certificate making him or her the number two person on-board with no qualifications at all. In its action, ITF applied for and received a First Officer's Certificate for its General Secretary David Cockroft who completely lacks marine training and skills.
"Do you want someone like me, with no practical seafaring experience, steering a ship off your coast, or plowing through the same sea lanes as oil supertankers and crowded passenger ferries?" asks Cockroft. "This is an under-policed system, that encourages bad operators to undercut good ones. It is courting human and environmental disaster."
But even if some policing existed at ports of entry where pirates could land their catch, pirate fishing ships have found yet another way of avoiding portside regulations by passing on their fish to a cargo ship at sea. Often, these cargo ships are also flying a flag of convenience.
Such was the case with the Japanese-owned, Panamanian-flagged MV Hatsukari which was spotted taking tuna from pirate ships about 400 nautical miles off the coast of Angola, another country on the West Coast of Africa.
In fact, in one day in 1999 the Hatsukari was found taking tuna from a Cambodian-flagged vessel, delivering bait to vessels flagged in Cambodia and Belize, and servicing a yet another Belize-flagged vessel.
Even in Japan where tuna is a prized fish for the valuable sashimi market, the fishing industry is speaking out about pirate fishing and other marine activities that aid pirate vessels.
Yuichiro Harada of the Federation of Japan Tuna Fisheries Co-operative Association has criticized tuna boat owners who opt to fish illegally by reflagging their boats in a flag of convenience country in order to avoid playing by the rules. In 1999, the organization asked the Japanese government to eliminate flag of convenience tuna vessels and ban the trade of any tuna caught by such vessels. It also asked that Japanese trading companies stop buying tuna from pirate ships.
In a statement, Harada stated, "that [eliminating flag of convenience vessels] would be the most effective measure to ensure sus-tain-ability of tuna resources and tuna fisheries in the world."
In recent years Japan, scrapped many of its fishing vessels in an effort to reduce capacity, but some of the vessels made their way to Taiwan where they acquired flags from countries willing to sell their flags for cash. These ships are believed to be pirating tunas today.
Here in the U.S., tuna watchers are frustrated by the lack of action by the U.S. government. A recent Plan of Action designed by the UNFAO is not as strong as the fishing industry as well as environmental groups would have liked. The agreement adopted by more than 110 countries in March 2001 is voluntary and non-binding. U.S. tuna representatives such as Glenn Delaney say they are going to step up pressure at ICCAT to once and for all deal with the issue of pirate fishing.
"We are tired of waiting for the State Department to act. Japan has put in place an import ban on pirate-caught fish in essence boycotting any products caught by IUU boats," says Delaney. "But the U.S. doesn't have an import ban on fish caught by IUU boats, and with the reduction in the domestic catch due to U.S. policies, this has only led to an increase in the imports of fish caught by nations that do the absolute worst in the world." Delaney believes that the best way to address pirate fishing is to deny them access to markets. This is one point that fishing, labor, and environmental groups all seem to agree upon.
ITF's David Cockroft concludes: "Money certainly talks. It is time to eliminate the culture of greed and corruption rooted in the Flag of Convenience system. However good international conventions look on paper, they will never guarantee standards until ship registers which exist solely to make money are driven out of business."