National Plan of Action to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing.

The National Plan of Action to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated Fishing, NPOA-IUU, has been developed in response to the call of the FAO Committee on Fisheries at the 24th Session in urging states to take steps to effectively implement the International Plan of Action. Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing undermines efforts to conserve and manage fish stocks in capture fisheries and leads to both short term and long term economic and social loss. This has negative impacts on food security and environmental protection.
Mauritius has on 08 May 2008 proclaimed its new Fisheries and Marine Resources Act 2007 which was passed in the National Assembly in November 2007. The Act incorporates principles contained in the 1993 FAO Compliance Agreement, the 1995 UN Fish Stocks Agreement and the 1995 FAO Code of Conduct for Responsible Fishing. To a large extent the NPOA-IUU describes measures already taken and a number of new measures which will act as additional tools to combat IUU fishing. The Mauritius NPOA-IUU addresses, among others, the following: a) All State responsibilities; b) Flag State responsibilities including registration of vessels fishing boats and vessels, records of fishing boats and vessels and authorization to fish; c) Coastal States responsibilities; d) Port State Measures with emphasis on advance notification of vessels, denial of access, cooperation with other States and RFMOs and port inspections; e) Trade related measures such as catch documentation, transparency of markets and information dissemination; f) Conformity with measures taken by the Regional Fisheries Management Organisations which include party compliance and non-party compliance; g) Special requirements of developing States; and h) Several supporting action to enhance measures taken by Mauritius to combat IUU fishing.
In accordance with the policy of the government to combat Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated (IUU) fishing, this document provides a National Plan of Action to Prevent, Deter and Eliminate Illegal, Unreported and Unregulated fishing (NPOA-IUU). It has been developed in line with the FAO International Plan of Action against IUU fishing (IPOA-IUU) to prevent, deter and eliminate IUU fishing adopted by the FAO Committee on Fisheries by consensus on 2 March 2001. It is also in response to several calls made in international fora for States, industry and other stakeholders to take steps to implement the IPOA-IUU. Mauritius is taking all necessary measures to combat IUU fishing in its waters through the use of strengthened MCS systems with particular emphasis on port state measures based on the FAO Model Scheme and supported by a Vessel Monitoring System which has been set up since 2005. The IPOA-IUU calls on States to use port State measures in accordance with international law, to control port access by fishing vessels in order to prevent, deter and eliminate IUU fishing.