The U.S. Interagency Working Group on IUU Fishing released its National Five-Year Strategy for Combating Illegal, Unreported, and Unregulated Fishing, which details U.S. priorities and plans to combat IUU fishing, curtail the trade in seafood and seafood products derived from IUU fishing, and promote global maritime security.
The Working Group, a twenty-one-member agency group established by Congress in 2019 to coordinate the suite of U.S. counter-IUU fishing tools, supports a comprehensive approach to combating IUU fishing and preventing the import of IUU fish and fish products to the United States.
The Strategy builds on existing activities underway within the agencies, while adding new collaborative initiatives, to provide a comprehensive set of actions to aid priority regions and flag states in addressing IUU fishing, including preventing import of IUU fish or fish products associated with labor abuses in the seafood sector.
In addition, it lists five priority flag states and administrations in regions where the Working Group intends to focus its future work to help our partners in their ongoing efforts to combat IUU fishing and related threats.
In large part due to their demonstrated willingness and interest to take effective action against IUU fishing activities associated with their vessels, the Working Group selected the priority flag states and administrations of Ecuador, Panama, Senegal, Taiwan, and Vietnam to pursue new projects and initiatives.
Together with other governments and authorities, seafood industry, academia, philanthropies, and nongovernmental stakeholders, the United States aims to use this strategy to make tangible progress in addressing IUU fishing and to carry out a shared global vision for sustainable stewardship of marine resources.