ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME: FISH, FORESTS & FILTHY LUCRE University of Wollongong 22 – 24 February 2010 The Regional Plan of Action (RPOA) to Promote Responsible Fishing Practices Including Combating Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported (IUU) Fishing in the South-East Asia Region Murray Johns Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry Australia

The purpose today… 1.To outline the South East Asia Fisheries RPOA – its structure and role – with a focus on Monitoring, Control and Surveillance (MCS). 2.Why and how illegal fishing continues in the region. 3.Drawing on the RPOA mechanisms, show where fisheries agencies can interact with, and add value to, the work of the FIUs.

RPOA: Background Endorsed in May 2007 by fisheries Ministers from 11 South East Asian countries. It is a voluntary instrument taking its core principles from the established international fisheries instruments and is consistent with regional agreements and arrangements. Based on a recognition of the importance of fish protein in regional food security.

RPOA: Background (2) Aims to restore sustainability to fisheries resources and their marine environments –strengthen overall fisheries management –management/governance in the region –manage fishing capacity, and –combat IUU fishing.

RPOA: Background (3) Has a very broad ambit – focusing on: Understanding the region’s current resource and management situation Implementation of Coastal State, Flag State and Port State measures Strengthening and modernising fisheries legislation

RPOA: Background (4) Development of regional capacity building – human and institutional Strengthening monitoring, control and surveillance (MCS) systems Controlling transhipment at sea.

MCS: Some definitions Monitoring the on-going measurement of fishing effort and resource yields Control the regulatory conditions under which fishing is conducted Surveillance the observations required to maintain compliance with the law – along the whole supply chain

RPOA: MCS networks Regional MCS Network Sub-regional MCS networks The Arafura-Timor Sea (Timor Leste, Indonesia, Australia and PNG) The South China Sea (Gulf of Thailand) – (Thailand, Cambodia, Malaysia and Vietnam) The Sulu-Sulawesi Seas (Malaysia, Indonesia, Brunei and Philippines)

MCS: the ‘eyes and ears’ of the fishery Vessel information Name/identification Location(s) Ownership Fishing history

Vessel information (continued) Species on board Home port Unloading and/or transhipment in port Transhipment at sea MCS: the ‘eyes and ears’ of the fishery (2)

Increasing regional and global demand for fish protein The ‘need’ of fishers to improve their financial positions A failure by countries to implement their flag state responsibilities Increasing use of carrier/support vessels Official corruption – fisheries and other. Despite MCS, IUU fishing continues given:

Opportunistic forays across borders Document falsification Flag falsification Using prohibited fishing gear Falsifying vessel names Bribery of officials A lack of coordination between agencies Regional media tells the story

What can MCS contribute to FIUs? Information and intelligence on: fishing locations fishing methods vessel name(s) vessel ownership flag(s) used Following the money trail

fishing gear on board species on board falsification of records any history of infractions/sanctions ports used to unload or tranship transhipments at sea. MCS: Contribution to FIUs (2)

Such information helps draw a pattern around illegal operations which can be used by FIUs to help track the money trails. information should be shared between MCS systems and FIUs such inter-agency collaboration should be encouraged and pursued while we might not stop them outright, we can harass them even more. MCS: Contribution to FIUs (3)

In conclusion… Tomorrow’s scenario exercise is very welcomed by the RPOA-IUU Fishing. Stronger inter-agency linkages will build with time. The RPOA Coordination Committee, with FIUs, could explore development of further collaborative mechanisms. The more the MCS units and FIUs can work together, the more we will cause disruption at all levels of illegal fishing.

THANK YOU For more information about the RPOA visit the RPOA Secretariat website at: