The U.S. Coast Guard’s new Legend-class national security cutter, USCGC Stone (WMSL 758), has departed from Pascagoula, Mississippi on its first patrol to the South Atlantic to counter illegal, unregulated,…
illegal fishing
Satellites Used to Expose Risks of Forced Labor in Global Fishing
By Nanchanok Wongsamuth BANGKOK, Dec 21 (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Fishing vessels with crews of forced laborers behave in systematically different ways to the rest of the global fleet, according…
Navy, Coast Guard Keep Up Operations in Africa
USS Hershel ‘Woody’ Williams operating with the Senegalese Navy on Sept. 21, 2020. US Navy Photo
KUALA LUMPUR – The U.S Navy and Coast Guard remain committed to supporting and building the maritime security capabilities of its African partners, senior leaders from both services said in an Oct. 5 conference call.
Adm. Karl Schultz, commandant of the U.S. Coast Guard, and Adm. Robert Burke, commander of U.S. Naval Forces Europe-Africa and NATO Allied Joint Force Command Naples stressed that their...
https://news.usni.org/2020/10/08/navy-coast-guard-keep-up-operations-in-africa
Ecuador Monitoring Fishing Vessel Fleet Near Galapagos Islands
QUITO, July 23 (Reuters) – Ecuador is monitoring a large fleet of fishing vessels, many of them Chinese, off the Galapagos Islands and has increased patrolling to ensure the ships do not enter the area of the ecologically sensitive islands, the defense minister said on Thursday. Chinese fishing...
Three States sign the Torremolinos Declaration
Three countries, Bulgaria, Poland and Portugal, signed the “Torremolinos Declaration” in efforts to ratify the Cape Town Agreement by the tenth anniversary of its adoption (11 October 2022), and to combat illegal unreported and unregulated fishing (IUU).
During a European Union High-level Ministerial Maritime Conference in Croatia, 10-11 March, the participants along with the IMO Secretary General, Kitack Lim, noted the importance of bringing the Cape Town Agreement into force.
To remind, the...
https://safety4sea.com/three-states-sign-the-torremolinos-declaration/
Finland joins Cape Town Agreement on fishing vessel safety
Finland is the latest country to join the Cape Town Agreement concerning fishing vessel safety, in efforts to bring mandatory safety measures for fishing vessels of 24 m in length and over.
Specifically, H.E. Mr. Markku Keinänen, Ambassador and Permanent Representative of Finland to IMO, met IMO Secretary-General Kitack Lim to deposit the instrument of accession, at IMO Headquarters, London, on February 18.
It is stated that Finland’s accession follows IMO’s Conference on fishing vessel safety in...
https://safety4sea.com/finland-joins-cape-town-agreement-on-fishing-vessel-safety/
Amazon’s pink dolphins under threat
According to Reuters, the Amazon river dolphin known as pink dolphin located in Brazil, is under threat since fishermen are hunting and killing them illegally by making them bait for a catfish called piracatinga, which gathers fish that demand high prices in the city.
As the legal ban upon fishing the piracatinga ended last month, environmentalists and researchers are prompting calls for its renewal, so as to stop pink dolphins’s being vulnerable.
Speaking of urgent calls, the biologist Vera da...
Remotely piloted aircraft system used for fisheries surveillance
The European Maritime Safety Agency (EMSA) is collaborating with the European Fisheries Control Agency (EFCA) providing additional surveillance capacity through a remotely piloted aircraft system (RPAS).
Specifically, EFCA is looking for additional ways to improve its fisheries control. Now, EMSA provided a quadcopter for flights taking off from EFCA’s chartered offshore patrol vessel, the Lundy Sentinel, and operating over areas of interest in the Mediterranean Sea, western waters of the...
https://safety4sea.com/remotely-piloted-aircraft-system-used-for-fisheries-surveillance/
Ecuador to tackle IUU fishing
Sea Shepherd Legal entered into an agreement with Ecuador’s Office of the Attorney General to increase Ecuador’s capacity to fight illegal fishing and related criminal activity. Sea Shepherd Legal will provide training and other support to help Ecuador.
Ecuador accommodates rich marine ecosystems that serve as breeding, nursery, and feeding grounds for a vast array of highly sensitive marine species. However, the country faces poaching, threatening the long-term viability of marine biodiversity,...
UK MCA to use technology to monitor commercial fishing compliance to ILO 188
The UK Maritime CoastGuard Agency (UK MCA) began monitoring the country’s commercial fishing industry and compliance with ILO 188, assisted by technological means to monitor the situation.
Specifically, according to Marine Management Organisation’s (MMO) UK Sea Fisheries Statistics 2018, the fishing industry in the UK remains on the seventh spot in the EU; However, UK MCA highlights that commercial fishing is the most dangerous profession, with totally seven lives lost in 2019.
As stated above,...
https://safety4sea.com/uk-mca-to-use-technology-to-monitor-commercial-fishing-compliance-to-ilo-188/