Unregulated fishing jeopardising food security in US

Importers and the US government are being urged to halt the trade in which more than a billion dollars’ worth of illegally caught fish and seafood are shipped into the country every year.

Between 20% and 32% of all fish and seafood bought by US importers every year is reported to be from illegal sources. The value is put at between $1.3bn and £2.1bn (£856,000-£1.38bn, €1.1bn-€1.78bn).

The US imports form a large part of the annual global trade in illegal fish and seafood now estimated at $23bn.
Supply chain studies show most of the imports are wild shrimp, crab, salmon, tuna and Chinese reprocessed Russian pollock, originating mainly from ten countries – Canada, Chile, Ecuador, Mexico, China, India, Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam.

The report, compiled by US marine specialists and academics and published in the online ocean study journal Marine Policy, emphasises that illegal and unregulated fishing is a significant global problem jeopardising ecosystems, food security and livelihoods.

Detailing the dangers, it says the practice works against sustainable use of ocean resources, causes unfair competition, harms honest fishermen, weakens coastal communities, increases tax evasion, and is frequently associated with drug trafficking, slavery at sea and other transnational crimes.

One problem for business and authority is that the supply chains are obscured, especially those involving reprocessing in China.

The report says the US, one of the world’s largest seafood markets, has played an unintentional role.

Nevertheless, WWF, the international conservation and environmental NGO, which part-funded the report, has called for stricter checks by the US government so that the sources of illegal imported fish and seafood can be more easily traced and cut off.

Michele Kuruc, the WWF’s vice-president for marine conservation, said: “As one of the planet’s largest consumers of seafood, the US has an enormous impact on the global seafood trade and the obligation to drive international progress to stop illegally caught fish from entering it.”