1. The Director-General of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), Mr Jacques Diouf, convened an Expert Consultation to Review Port State Measures to Combat Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing. The Consultation was held at FAO Headquarters, Rome, from 4 to 6 November 2002.[1]
2. The Consultation was attended by eight Experts in their personal capacities and two Resource Persons. A list of the Experts and Resource Persons is attached as Appendix B. The document placed before the Consultation is listed in Appendix C.
3. The Technical Secretaries, Mr David Doulman and Ms Annick Van Houtte, called the Expert Consultation to order.
4. The Assistant Director-General for Fisheries, Mr Ichiro Nomura, made an Opening Statement. He welcomed participants to FAO and Rome and noted, inter alia, that a lack of port State measures was one of the weakest links in the chain to prevent, deter and eliminate IUU fishing. It was for this reason that the Expert Consultation was both timely and important. Mr Nomuras Opening Statement is attached as Appendix D.
[1] The International Plan of
Action to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated
Fishing in paragraph 90 urges FAO to collaborate ...with other relevant
international organizations, in particular IMO, (to) further investigate the
issue of IUU fishing. FAO collaborated with the International Maritime
Organization (IMO) in October 2000 to convene the Joint Ad Hoc Working Group on
Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing and Related Matters. This Expert
Consultation on port State measures represents further collaboration with IMO to
address IUU fishing. |