Fish transshipment and management

The global transshipment industry had been vital to the world economy. It makes sure goods and other products reach their destinations fast and on time. It is one of the backbones of the world’s commercial fishing industry, a multimillion-dollar network composed of refrigerated cargo vessels crisscrossing the seas and transporting the fish and other seafood caught from the ocean to shore. The practice of transshipment covers a wide range of seafood products like the popular tuna—bigeye, skipjack, and yellowfin—salmon, mackerel, and crab where thousands of fishing vessels transport the catch from the sea to the markets and producers until it reaches your plate.

But while it speeds up the process of transporting fish and other edible marine resources, it also has damaging effects like the lack of conservation and management efforts due to overfishing which further threatens the improvement of the health of diminishing fish stocks. As the global population increases by a rate of 1.08 percent annually, especially in underdeveloped or developing nations, so is the appetite of consuming the earth’s resources which includes marine life.

And here lies the problem in the global transshipment industry—where economies of several small island nations in the western, south, and the central Pacific oceans are heavily dependent on fishing. A report released by global think-tank PEW Research this year showed that illegal, unreported, and unregulated transshipped products could reach an estimated over $142 million—most of which are misreported or underreported by licensed fishing vessels.

Even if fish transshipment happens in seaports, proper oversight and regular checks are not guaranteed with some ports lacking sufficient inspection capacity and protocols.

Sea transshipment is a global practice in the fishing industry. However, the illegal practice of unregulated and underreported transshipment fishing, not just only harms the livelihood of authorized fisherfolk, but also downplays the conservation and management efforts being done by various international agencies that aim to put an end to the practice of global overfishing. There are also reports that transshipment is also linked to human trafficking and the transport of illegal drugs and weapons. It also opens up the possibility of poaching, especially certain endangered species that are considered a delicacy in some countries.

Fish transshipment may not be harmful as it looks and some may think that it speeds up the process of production in the fishing industry, but most of the trade is being done far out at sea—escaping the watchful eyes of authorities. Corrupt fishing vessel operators have the tendency to manipulate or falsify their records containing the species of fish and the amount they caught or transferred in various catch locations.

Regional Fisheries Management Organizations data released that said activities seemed to be widespread in every part of the ocean. Authorities have no control and could not monitor all activities—even the legal ones—of the transshipment transfers. The degree of these transactions is often inadequate, whether or not they are done in line with all regulatory requirements or not.

RFMOs or also known as Regional Fisheries Organizations are regional fishery bodies, international organizations that are dedicated to having a sustainable management of marine and other aquatic resources—particularly in the international waters of the Pacific, Atlantic, and Indian oceans where highly migratory species are present.

Some RMFOs may only focus on certain species of fish that can be found in certain areas or they may have a wider range of marine resources living in a particular region. Regardless of their area or species that they wanted to protect, their mandate and effective implementation of regulations help open up ways how to go against illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing vessels that are part of the said unlawful practice in the global transshipment trade.