July 30, 2015 — Efforts to crackdown on illegal fishing received a boost this week with the launch of a new transparency initiative designed to make it easier to identify vessels guilty of landing catches unlawfully.
Who Fishes Far, which has been developed by the Environmental Justice Foundation (EJF), Oceana and WWF, features a database of more than 15,000 EU vessels which were authorised to fish outside of the EU between 2010 and 2014.
The information was compiled after a successful access-to-information request to the European Commission and users can search the website by vessel, flag state, year and type of agreement issued under the EU’s Fishing Authorising Regulation (FAR).
María José Cormax, fisheries campaign director of Oceana, said that greater transparency is crucial if the fishing industry is to deliver sustainable European fisheries.