More than 200 Chinese fishing vessels have been monitored within the Indian Ocean within the first half of this 12 months, in accordance with the Indian Navy, at the same time as unlawful, unreported and unregulated (IUU) fishing continues to rise past India’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ). Most of the criminal activity is discovered within the Northern Indian Ocean Region (IOR).

IUU fishing depletes fish shares, destroys marine habitats, places fishermen at drawback and impacts coastal communities, particularly in growing nations.

Chinese fishing vessels, fishing vessels from European Union nations and different nations from outdoors the area had been noticed to be fishing within the Indian Ocean, the Navy stated, in its written reply to queries from The Hindu. “The presence of extra-regional distant water fishing fleets has been monitored by Information Management and Analysis Centre (IMAC). Around 200-250 Chinese fishing vessels have been monitored in the Indian Ocean, with a large concentration in the Northern Indian Ocean,” stated the Navy, in its written response, with out giving any particulars of particular occurrences. “A total of 392 reported incidents of IUU fishing were monitored in 2021 compared to 379 in 2020 in the Indian Ocean.”

As reported earlier, there was a rising incidence of Chinese deep sea fishing trawlers within the Indian Ocean along with an total rise of China’s maritime presence within the area. Incidently, two Chinese analysis vessels which may monitor missile checks are additionally presently within the Indian Ocean area.

Chinese deep sea trawlers have been a matter of concern for nations within the area, together with India, as they’re working removed from the Chinese coast and impacting native marine ecology. For occasion, between 2015 and 2019, on a mean at the least 500 Chinese deep sea trawlers had been current within the IOR.

Unregistered Chinese vessels

In a altering sample, there may be now an enormous surge in unregistered Chinese fishing vessels amongst these working within the IOR, it has been learnt. An official within the know stated that within the final couple of months, near 140 Chinese fishing vessels have been monitored finishing up fishing past India’s EEZ, within the North Western IOR. “However, only approximately one-third of these had licenses for such activities, which borders on the lines of being categorised as IUU,” the official acknowledged.

As per United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), coastal nations are answerable for addressing IUU fishing points inside their respective EEZ. There are regional fisheries administration organisations such because the Indian Ocean Tuna Commission, Southern Indian Ocean Fisheries Agreement working beneath the mandate of UNCLOS as regulatory our bodies to watch IUU fishing on the excessive seas.

Joint Quad monitoring

Recognising the affect of IUU fishing which may result in the depletion of fish shares affecting marine ecology, the Quad, comprising India, Australia, Japan and U.S., in May 2022 introduced a significant regional regional effort beneath the ambit of Indo-Pacific Maritime Domain Awareness (IPMDA). It goals to offer a extra correct maritime image of “near-real-time” actions within the area. “It (IPMDA) is expected to catalyse joint efforts of India and other Quad partners towards addressing IUU in Indo-Pacific region,” the Navy stated.

All vessel actions on the excessive seas are monitored by the Indian Navy’s IMAC in Gurugram and the Information Fusion Centre-Indian Ocean Region (IFC-IOR) which is co-located with it. IFC-IOR has been collaborating with different regional monitoring centres throughout the globe to boost maritime security and safety, together with efforts to watch IUU, the Navy stated, including that it “undertakes satellite monitoring of vessels operating in the IOR to track such vessels.”

There are two major rules globally on IUU fishing: the Cape Town Agreement and the Agreement on Ports State Measures. So far, India is just not a signatory of both settlement.

Fishing vessels the world over are speculated to have car administration techniques put in which not solely establish their place, but in addition requires them to file the quantity and site of their catch, serving to to sort out the difficulty of IUU fishing. For occasion, the European Union has made it necessary to offer this info for all fish imports. In India, whereas bigger vessels, over 20 metres in size, have such Automatic Identification Systems put in, comparable efforts for sub-20 metre vessels have been delayed.