A dozen of organisations, including CFFA, sent a letter to the Chairperson of FISH-I, Mr Nanyaro, in response to his presentation at an Interpol event on IUU fishing, where,in response to a statement about the need for governments to be transparent in fisheries management as a starting point in addressing IUU, Mr Nanyaro told the audience that this was not the case, and that government confidentiality was necessary in the fight against IUU.
Mr Nanyaro has responded to the letter on the Stop Illegal Fishing website, claiming that he and the Stop Illegal Fishing Working Group are committed to transparency in fisheries and that he was misquoted, which those of us who attended the meeting disagree with.. It is however encouraging that he confirms a commitment to government transparency in his response, although his response still demonstrates a lack of understanding on the need for governance reform as a basic starting point of addressing IUU fishing:
“The appeal letter sent by CFFA appears to have quoted me out of context – which is a great shame considering the excellent work of Stop Illegal Fishing and FISH-i Africa. I must stress that I was speaking at an INTERPOL compliance and enforcement event that was dealing with the very serious issue of fisheries crimes, it was not a general meeting on governance in fisheries. I also note, that I was speaking about one of Stop Illegal Fishing’s initiatives – that of FISH-i Africa, which was established to support fisheries enforcement actions, a domain that by necessity and due to national legislation may require confidentiality. ”
It is a shame that such a leading organisation on illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing thinks that this has little to do with governance, and the final words are reinstating the need to respect government confidentiality.
As it is, most governments in the East Africa region resist publishing basic information on commercial fisheries and the reason for this is not to help fight crime. Obviously if governments wanted to fight illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing they would want to tell everyone who is fishing legally, what is the conditions of this license and how much money was paid for it. That increases the chance that the public or other fishing firms operating legally will raise the alarm if a boat is breaking the rules or money has been embezzled.