14. Mr Doulman made a presentation concerning the IPOA-IUU. It focused principally on:
The paper also included, as attachments, the FAO Conference resolution 6/2003 relating to IUU fishing, the 2005 Rome Declaration on Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing and the major recommendations of the 2004 FAO Technical Consultation Review Progress and Promote the Full Implementation of the International Plan of Action to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing and the International Plan of Action for the Management of Fishing Capacity.
15. The presentation noted that IUU fishing had been identified by the international community to be a major impediment to the achievement of long-term sustainable fisheries. It was further noted that IUU fishing occurred in all capture fisheries, irrespective of their locations, and that such fishing undermined national and regional efforts to promote responsible fisheries. Mr Doulman pointed out that FAO had played a pivotal role in galvanizing efforts to combat IUU fishing in accordance with a large number of international calls for such fishing to be eliminated. He added that FAO was aware that many developing countries, principally for capacity reasons, were particularly hard pressed to implement measures to effectively address IUU fishing.
16. Following the presentation, issues were raised concerning the reasons why some States had not accepted international instruments such as the 1993 FAO Compliance Agreement and the 1995 UN Fish Stocks Agreement; the role of flag States in failing to meet their obligations under international law and as a result their failure to prevent their flag vessels engaging in IUU fishing and related activities and the need for port States to exercise controls to assist in the implementation of the IPOA-IUU
