THE COUNCIL,
HAVING REGARD to Article 5 b) of the Convention on the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) of 14 December 1960;
HAVING REGARD to the standards developed by the OECD in the areas of ecosystems and biodiversity conservation and environmental compliance; and to the work done by the OECD in the areas of government support to fisheries (hereafter “fisheries support”) and measures against illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing, including the experience gained on monitoring and analysing fisheries support and, in particular, through the OECD Review of Fisheries and the Fisheries Support Estimate (FSE) database;
HAVING REGARD to the standards including international agreements developed and work done under other regional and international organisations, including Regional Fisheries Management Organisations or Arrangements (RFMO/As), to prevent, deter and eliminate IUU fishing or fishing-related activities in support of IUU fishing, and standards such as the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the United Nations Fish Stocks Agreement (UNFSA), the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) International Plan of Action to Prevent, Deter, and Eliminate IUU Fishing (IPOA-IUU), the Voluntary Guidelines for Transshipment, the Voluntary Guidelines for Catch Documentation Schemes, the Voluntary Guidelines for Flag State Performance, the Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate IUU Fishing (PSMA), and the World Trade Organization (WTO) Agreement on Fisheries Subsidies, as well as the importance of promoting their implementation and that of other relevant international standards including international agreements;
CONSIDERING that IUU fishing as described in the IPOA-IUU can seriously undermine and threaten the sustainability of fisheries and the ocean economy as well as the livelihoods of those that rely upon it; complicate the stock assessments that underpin evidence-based fisheries management; cause law-abiding fishers to face unfair competition over resources and in markets; threaten food security when diverting fish away from local markets in regions and communities that depend on local seafood; pose food safety risks, including due to the mislabelling of products; be associated with conflicts over scarce resources, and conflicts in areas where maritime jurisdiction has not been delimited; and be associated with transnational criminal activities;
CONSIDERING that fishing-related activities as described in the PSMA, such as the transhipping of fish that have not been previously landed at a port and the provisioning of personnel, fuel and other supplies at sea, can play an enabling role in IUU fishing, are still generally less subject to regulation and are inherently harder to monitor and control than fishing activities despite recent international efforts to design or establish and implement better regulation on such activities;
CONSIDERING that fishing and fishing-related activities occurring outside of the jurisdiction of a coastal State and outside the competence of a relevant RFMO/A, operate outside of multilateral, co-operative management and may not be compatible with the sustainable use of the fisheries resources;
CONSIDERING that fisheries support, as described in the OECD Fisheries Support Estimate (FSE) database, includes fisheries support policies targeted at individuals and companies owning or operating vessels (hereafter “owners and operators of vessels”) in the fishing sector, as well as policies that benefit the sector, or segments of it, more generally, which ultimately benefit individuals and companies in the sector;
RECOGNISING that some fisheries support policies do not bear any risk of encouraging IUU fishing and fishing-related activities in support of IUU fishing, such as investments in stock assessments, management, and enforcement, and are, therefore, not covered by this Recommendation;
RECOGNISING that support policies that benefit fisheries alongside a range of other sectors are not covered by this Recommendation;
CONSIDERING the difficulty to gather information and evaluate the sustainability and socio-economic implications of certain fisheries support policies and, notably, the risk that such fisheries support policies may be of benefit to and encourage IUU fishing and fishing-related activities in support of IUU fishing;
CONSIDERING that some countries may have less capacity to ensure effective fisheries management and enforcement;
CONSIDERING that information on vessel ownership, including beneficial ownership, is regarded as important to help combat IUU fishing and fishing-related activities in support of IUU fishing;
RECOGNISING the difficulty of gathering information on the beneficial ownership of vessels; the potential privacy and confidentiality issues related to sharing information on vessel ownership; and ongoing efforts by Members and non-Members having adhered to this Recommendation (hereafter the “Adherents”), domestically, and in other international fora, to improve ownership transparency in all sectors;
RECOGNISING that Adherents have different legal and institutional frameworks through which they will implement this Recommendation.
On the proposal of the Fisheries Committee:
I. RECOMMENDS that Adherents eliminate fisheries support to IUU fishing and fishing-related activities in support of IUU fishing. To that effect, Adherents should:
1. Make fisheries support to owners and operators of vessels that fish or undertake fishing-related activities available only to vessels:
a) flagged to the supporting Adherent, or take special care and exercise due restraint when granting support to vessels not flying the supporting Adherent’s flag, and
b) with an authorisation or legal right to fish or undertake fishing-related activities, in line with international standards, including, where applicable, an IMO number, a unique vessel identifier and, to the extent possible, information on owners and operators of vessels including beneficial ownership, as practicable.
2. Implement specific mechanisms to exclude from fisheries support, withhold fisheries support and, where possible, withdraw fisheries support from owners and operators of vessels found to have engaged in IUU fishing and fishing-related activities in support of IUU fishing by, for example:
a) defining in domestic regulations or policies how fisheries support can be denied, withdrawn or withheld on the basis of an IUU fishing vessel listing or other conclusive findings related to owners and operators of vessels engaged in IUU fishing or fishing-related activities in support of IUU fishing;
b) ensuring proportionality in how and for how long fisheries support may be denied, withdrawn or withheld, including by giving due consideration to the nature and gravity of the IUU fishing or fishing-related activities in support of IUU fishing, and the context in which it happened and the action taken to address the activity.
3. Encourage information sharing on IUU fishing determinations, where appropriate, through relevant international organisations, including RFMO/As, in proven cases of IUU fishing or fishing related activities in support of IUU fishing, including the name and identification number of fishing vessels and information on the owners and operators of vessels, including beneficial ownership, as practicable, in a manner consistent with Adherents’ confidentiality requirements and due process where they apply.
4. Strengthen or establish processes to share information between Adherents’ domestic authorities, to the extent possible, on individual recipients of fisheries support and IUU fishing determinations, in a manner consistent with Adherents' confidentiality requirements and due process, where they apply.
5. Assess the potential of fisheries support policies to contribute to IUU fishing or fishing-related activities in support of IUU fishing and take appropriate mitigation measures to the extent possible.
II. RECOMMENDS that Adherents should not grant or maintain fisheries support to fishing or fishing-related activities occurring outside of the jurisdiction of a coastal State and outside the competence of a relevant RFMO/A.
III. RECOMMENDS that Adherents, where applicable, take appropriate measures to improve management; monitoring, control, and surveillance of fishing or fishing-related activities, bringing them in line with international standards.
IV. ENCOURAGES other international organisations and stakeholders to disseminate and support the implementation of this Recommendation.
V. INVITES the Secretary-General to disseminate this Recommendation.
VI. INVITES Adherents to disseminate this Recommendation at all levels of government.
VII. INVITES non-Adherents to take account of and adhere to this Recommendation.
VIII. INSTRUCTS the Fisheries Committee to:
a) serve as a forum to exchange information, good practices and experiences in relation to the implementation of this Recommendation and by engaging with relevant international organisations and stakeholders, when relevant;
b) support Adherents in their efforts to implement this Recommendation, including through data collection, analysis, the development of an implementation toolkit or voluntary country reviews;
c) report to the Council on the implementation, dissemination, and continued relevance of this Recommendation no later than five years following its adoption and at least every ten years thereafter.