Report of the Technical Consultation on the Marking of Fishing Gear
The Technical Consultation on the Marking of Fishing Gear was held at FAO headquarters in Rome, Italy, from 5 to 9 February 2018.
The Technical Consultation worked towards concluding the development of Draft Voluntary Guidelines on the Marking of Fishing Gear.
The Technical Consultation used a preliminary draft text that had been developed at the Expert Consultation on the Marking of Fishing Gear held by FAO on 4-7 April 2016 as further edited by the FAO Secretariat.
The Technical Consultation reviewed and finalized the scope of the guidelines, agreeing that supporting technical documents could be developed by the Secretariat via a separate process.
The Technical Consultation considered how the guidelines should be implemented, controlled and monitored and identified the importance of gear marking in combating abandoned, lost or otherwise discarded fishing gear (ALDFG) as well as the role that gear marking could play in reducing or eliminating Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing.
The Guidelines agreed by the Technical Consultation also addressed commercial traceability of fishing gear marking, reporting and recovery of ALDFG and provided for special considerations when marking and reporting of fish aggregating devices (FADs).
Special consideration was also given to developing States and small scale fisheries when implementing the guidelines in these contexts.
The Technical Consultation highlighted a number of key areas for research and development on gear marking and related issues, and also provided guidance on communication and capacity development.
The Technical Consultation considered the results and recommendations of two gear-marking pilot projects supported by FAO and recommended that further projects should be conducted to support the implementation of the guidelines.
The Technical Consultation recommended that the FAO Committee on Fisheries (COFI) consider the endorsement of the Voluntary Guidelines on the Marking of Fishing Gear.
The Technical Consultation further recommended that COFI considers the development of a comprehensive global strategy to address ALDFG which could include the establishment of a mechanism to facilitate the sharing of information on the global implementation of these guidelines as well as data collected by national ALDFG reporting systems, and recommending to States the development and implementation of national action plans to address ALDFG.
Download the report here.