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The date of 22 November 2024 marks 15 years since the FAO Agreement on Port State Measures to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing (PSMA) was approved by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) Conference during its Thirty-sixth Session in 2009.

As the first, and to date, the only, binding international agreement to specifically target illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing, the PSMA has the highest rate of adherence among all fisheries-related instruments. The Agreement currently binds 79 Parties making up 105 States (the European Union is 1 Party on behalf of its 27 member States). The PSMA lays down a minimum set of standard measures for its Parties to apply when foreign vessels seek to enter their ports or use their port services. This makes the PSMA the most cost-effective tool to combat IUU fishing, as it seeks to stop fishery products caught through IUU means from entering the supply chain.

To support its implementation, FAO has established digitized tools like the PSMA Global Information Exchange System (GIES), launched in 2023. This system allows countries to upload inspection data under the PSMA and create a track record for each vessel, thus providing crucial information for risk analysis in the fight against IUU fishing shared in real time with other concerned countries and organizations.

Under the PSMA, FAO has also launched its Global Capacity Development Programme to support the implementation of the PSMA and complementary international instruments. Through this programme, FAO has, to date, provided support to more than 50 States in improving their capacities to effectively implement the PSMA and be in a better position to fulfil their international obligations to combat IUU fishing.

Parties to the PSMA convene every two years for the Meeting of the Parties, the fifth session of which will be held in Ecuador in 2025. During the Fourth Meeting of the Parties, which took place in Bali, Indonesia, in 2023, Parties adopted the ‘Bali Strategy’ to improve the effectiveness of the PSMA to combat IUU fishing.

Parties have also established specialized Working Groups, to address specific aspects in the monitoring, evaluation and implementation of the PSMA. The PSMA Secretariat also convenes regular PSMA Regional Coordination Meetings to take a closer look at regional realities concerning the implementation of the Agreement.

The PSMA entered into force on the 5 June 2016, thirty days after the deposit of the 25th instrument of adherence. This date was eventually chosen to mark the International Day for the Fight Against Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) Fishing.