For retailers, preventing illegal fishing is about much more than simply keeping certain seafood products from ending up on our supermarket shelves. The impact of unlawful, and ultimately unsustainable, fishing practices goes much deeper, with potentially severe consequences for our oceans and the communities that depend on them.
Illegal fishing and unsustainable fishing practices are leading to the depletion of fish stocks in some corners of the globe, with direct consequences for coastal towns and villages for which fishing is the lifeblood of the local economy, providing employment and incomes. In addition, crew members aboard fishing vessels that operate outside of the law have no protection, which can lead to them becoming victims of human-rights abuses. Illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing is estimated to cost the global economy somewhere in the region of between US$10 billion and US$23.5 billion per year. When we consider the challenge of feeding a rapidly expanding world population (expected to reach nine billion by 2050), the food-security dimension to this problem also becomes apparent.
The need for global action to combat IUU fishing was recognized by the UN General Assembly working group that put together the Sustainable Development Goals last year. One of those goals highlights the need to "conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development by 2020," by "effectively regulating harvesting, and ending overfishing, illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing and other destructive fishing practices."
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