Published: December 2, 2023

By: Eloy Aroni

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Port State measures (PSMs) are an important component of the ‘toolbox’ of monitoring, control and surveillance (MCS) measures aimed at effectively monitoring the global trade of seafood products and preventing fish derived from illegal, unreported and unregulated (IUU) practices entering the marketplace. While PSMs have long been applied at the individual State and Regional Fisheries Management Organisation (RFMO) level, the most prominent global agreement on PSMs is the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization’s Port State Measures Agreement (PSMA), which entered into force in June 2016. Currently, there are 75 Parties (including the EU that represents 27 member States) signed up to the PSMA. The main provisions of the PSMA are based on the designation of ports for foreign vessel entry, advance notification of entry into port, risk assessment, inspections and information exchange.

As States implement the PSMA or PSMs more effectively (e.g. requirements to use only designated ports, stronger inspection regimes, etc) there is the potential to change the behaviour of fishing fleets in response to the new measures. To examine the ‘real world’ influence of changes in PSMA/PSM implementation, the Pew Charitable Trusts commissioned MRAG Asia Pacific, in partnership with Global Fishing Watch (GFW), to undertake a study looking at changes in foreign fishing fleet behaviour in the periods ‘before’ and ‘after’ PSMA (or PSM) implementation in a number of case study ports. The overall aim was to examine whether changes in behaviour could be detected using publicly available Automatic Identification System (AIS) data, and the extent to which any changes were influenced by PSMA/PSM implementation (as opposed to other factors influencing port usage – e.g. changes in the distribution of fishing effort, availability of local support services).

Broadly, we approached the study in three phases. The first phase focused on exploring the feasibility of using AIS data to detect and analyse changes in fishing fleet behaviour in the periods ‘before’ and ‘after’ PSMA (or PSM) implementation, as well as identifying a final list of case study ports. The second phase developed a framework of metrics to examine changes in fleet behaviour in the periods ‘before’ and ‘after’ PSM/PSMA implementation. These were broadly designed to examine (i) changes in FFV visits, (ii) changes in port usage and (iii) changes in transshipment activity. The final phase examined trends in metrics for each port and worked with local experts to examine the drivers for changes, specifically to identify if these changes were driven by PSMA/PSM implementation

Case study port outcomes

Chimbote/Callao, Peru - Of all the case study ports examined in this study, the Peru ports of Chimbote and Callao experienced the most substantial changes in fishing fleet behaviour following the implementation of PSMs to support implementation of the PSMA. In this case, we looked specifically at the impact of the requirement introduced in 2020 for squid jig vessels to install a VMS approved by PRODUCE and transmit six months’ VMS data to Peruvian authorities prior to entry into Peruvian ports. The period 2015-2019 was used as the ‘before’ period and 2021-2022 the ‘after’ period.

Prior to the introduction of the VMS requirement, Peruvian ports, and in particular Chimbote, were used for routine hull maintenance and other services. Following the introduction of the VMS requirement, Chinese jigging vessels have been almost completely absent from Chimbote, with no visits in 2021 or 2022. A similar trend was evident in Callao, with numbers of jigger visits (including those from Korea) falling sharply following 2019.

An analysis of Chinese jigging vessels which previously visited Chimbote indicated that they had continued to fish in the same areas after the VMS requirement, with a small increase in visits to Chinese ports. Other vessels appear to have remained at sea for longer periods, spanning multiple fishing seasons. By contrast, the Korean jig fleet has changed fishing pattern, with vessels fishing exclusively on the Atlantic side of South America following the introduction of the VMS requirement, with no effort on the Pacific side since 2021.