To address the issue of illegal, unreported, and unregulated (IUU) fishing activities, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) declared 5 June as the International Day for the Fight Against Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing. The Day reflects the day when Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter, and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing (PSMA) officially entered into force as an international treaty. The PSMA is the first international legally-binding instrument focused on the fight against IUU fishing.
The UN estimates that one in every five fish caught comes from IUU fishing. IUU fishing activities account for the loss of 11-26 million tonnes of fish each year, the economic equivalent of USD 10-30 billion, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN (FAO). To address this situation, SDG target 14.4 urges the international community to, “by 2020, effectively regulate harvesting and end overfishing, illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing and destructive fishing practices and implement science-based management plans, in order to restore fish stocks in the shortest time feasible, at least to levels that can produce maximum sustainable yield as determined by their biological characteristics”.
In June 2022, World Trade Organization (WTO) members clinched a multilateral deal on fisheries subsidies. The new treaty includes a set of rules prohibiting subsidies to IUU fishing, to the fishing of overfished stocks, and to fishing on the high seas outside the control of regional fisheries management organizations (RFMOs).
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DATE
5 June 2025
LOCATION
worldwide